Dreaming of pots and pans

#letslunch: Dave's Chili Recipe

2012-01-05T22:25:00.001-05:00

OK, so I really fell down on the clock for #letslunch this month. As usual, it snuck up on me, like, WHAM!

So, what I have to offer up this month, is not my own recipe, not even a dish I cooked this week, but it is the most recent bowl of chili I have eaten:

Dave is my very dear father-in-law and every year on New Year's Day he makes a big pot of his very excellent chili. I missed out on the day-of festivities this year, but Jake brought some home for me, and it was just as delicious as ever.

So, here's the recipe Dave emailed me a couple months ago. I think the key is mixing the beef and the pork. It adds a little something I can't quite put my finger on to describe, short of just calling it "general awesomeness."

I'll try to update Friday afternoon with other #LetsLunch posts from around the country and globe! Want to join our monthly lunch date? Send us a tweet on the hashtag! I'm @emmacarew

DAVE'S CHILI RECIPE

1. Cook two diced onions in oil until soft.
2. Add two pounds of ground beef and one pound of pork. Cook till no longer pink and browned well. 3. Add three large cans of tomato sauce
4. Add one can of dark red kidney beans (we never liked beans all that much. It is all about the meat!)
5. Stir in three packages of McCormick's Chili Seasoning. Us the regular seasoning, not the mild or spicy. (Sorry for cheating, but I think it turns out great and tastes the same time after time). Cover and cook at a very low simmer for about 1 hour. It is a good base and you can always add from there if you want. Such as more heat.

Dave's notes: I always liked to make it a day in advance, as I believe it tastes better the more times you reheat it.I also liked to serve with plenty of oyster crackers, cheese, sour cream and of course beer and chips..

Homemade char siu pork

2011-12-12T19:49:00.001-05:00

I finally got around to checking out the Minneapolis-based counterpart to my local Asian market, Shuang Her, over the weekend.

It was a little disappointing to know how much better the Minneapolis store is in terms of meat selections -- there is a real butcher-type counter, rather than just a large fridge case of packaged meat.

So, I grabbed three pounds of skinless pork butt for about $9 and decided to try my hand at homemade char siu pork.

Char siu is one of those things that usually seems easier to buy, given how hard it seems to make at home.

I adapted this recipe and technique that I found online, and I'm thrilled with the result. My two favorite ways to enjoy char siu is wrapped in fluffy white dimsum buns or mixed into a sticky rice recipe from my friend Wendy (though, this was so tasty, I found myself just munching on it).

Ingredients:
3 lbs of skinless pork butt and cut into pieces a little smaller than my fist

Sauce:
4 tablespoons light corn syrup (use maltose if you have it/can find it)
4 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (shaoxing) -- note, the original recipe calls for "Chinese Rose Wine" so again, if you have it on hand or can find it, go with it.
3 dashes white pepper powder
1 tsp red coloring (optional)
2 teaspoons five-spice powder
2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Method:
Add all ingredients, except the pork, to a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Marinate the pork butt pieces with 2/3 of the char siu sauce overnight. Reserve the rest of the marinade for brushing during cooking.
At 400 degrees, roast the meat uncovered for 20 mins, flip and roast another 15 mins.
Then, on a flat baking pan covered in foil, brush the meat with half the remaining sauce, and broil for 5 minutes until it starts to smoke, and you get a few areas starting to turn black and crisp. Flip the meat, drain the sheet pan if there is too much liquid, and broil the other side.
* if you don't live in Minnesota in December, you could also grill the meat for the final steps over a high heat grill.

The pork after first round of roasting

The pork after broiling. I used our *awesome* new toaster oven for the roasting and the broiling.

#LetsLunch: festive sides/family sides edition

2011-12-11T10:29:00.001-05:00

Another month, another late LetsLunch post...

Sadly, I worked nights most of this past week, so I didn't do much cooking of meals, much less than side dishes. With it being my second-to-last week on the job, I used my free mornings instead to meet up with my former team in one of our bureaus for lunch, ran errands and got a spa facial on Friday. :)

I am SUPER excited to get started at my new gig at the Cooking Club. Hopefully that means this blog will start to get a little more love (though, it's entirely possible it goes in the other direction for the first few months while I get settled).

But, I will still continue to meet up with my world-wide LetsLunch group for our virtual food date once a month. This month, we chose festive holiday sides and festive family side dishes (I think...).

I made this for a potluck last night and from the empty dish we brought home at the end of the night, it seems to have been a hit.

This is my mom's Hot Crab Dip. She usually only makes it at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and every year, I think I end up single-handedly devouring at least half of it.

Mom's recipe calls for 1 block of cream cheese to 1 can of lump crab meat. This is a double batch and it fills a medium-sized round corning-ware dish.

Season the drained crab meat with two teaspoons of prepared horseradish (or more, to taste. I use heaping teaspoons). Also preheat your oven or toaster oven to 375.

Dried onion flakes, three teaspoons. You could probably use real onion (though a bit less, they're very strong) or some thinly sliced scallions if you're feeling extra fancy. Also sprinkle some salt and pepper at this point.

Mix in two blocks of cream cheese. This works a lot better when you leave the cream cheese out for a bit, maybe near a warm oven. These were right out of the fridge, and it was a pain to mix.

Finally add milk a spoonful at a time and continue mixing. Add no more than two tablespoons of milk (but usually ends up needing much less).

Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes until warmed through and slightly browned on top. Cool before serving or risk seriously burning the crap out of your mouth. Serve with crackers or bread.

--

LetsLunch is a monthly virtual lunch date among food bloggers from around the world. Our fearless leader, Cheryl Tan can be found at www.atigerinthekitchen.com Want to join us? Search the #LetsLunch hashtag on Twitter and ping any one of us with your info. I'm @emmacarew

Here's a round-up of what everyone else posted this week:
Charissa‘s Coconut Date Balls at Zest Bakery
Cheryl's Auntie Jane's Potato Gratin at A Tiger In the Kitchen
Eleanor‘s Easy Festive Stir-Fry at Wok Star
Ellise‘s Lime-Chipotle Carrots at Cowgirl Chef
Felicia‘s Chinese Butterfly Cookies at Burnt-Out Baker
Grace‘s Fruitcake at HapaMama
Joe‘s Maine Homestead Holiday Dishes at Joe Yonan
Linda‘s Baked Salad at Free Range Cookies
Linda‘s Trinidadian Baked Pastelles at Spicebox Travels
Lisa‘s Potato Latkes at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Lucy‘s “Not My Mama’s” Black-Eyed Peas & Greens at A Cook And Her Books
Maria‘s Grandma Dorothy’s Deviled Eggs at Maria’s Good Things
Patrick‘s Baby Pecan Pies at Patrick G. Lee
Rebecca‘s Grandmother Martha’s Potato Kugel at Grongar Blog
Steff‘s Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble at The Kitchen Trials
Victor‘s Roasted Parsnips, Carrots & Delicata Squash Tossed With Sauteed Mustard Greens at The Taste of Oregon

Thanksgiving 2011, version 2.0 (Roasted, braised turkey)

2011-12-03T11:24:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving this year was a quiet affair. Having used up most of my vacation time for our wedding and honeymoon, I volunteered to work a half day at the paper, then we went to a good friend's house for a potluck.

The potluck was wonderful -- my first Thanksgiving with egg rolls. I think I may never go back!

But, that left us in the curious position of not having any Thanksgiving leftovers, except for a few slices of pie.

So, Friday night, we hit up Cub Foods and bought the smallest non-frozen turkey we could find (12 pounds) and a few other provisions for Thanksgiving 2.0.

I spent most of Saturday cooking our very first married Thanksgiving. Jake also points out that Michigan, his favorite college football team had a miraculous win on our wedding day, then had another big win on the day of our first married Thanksgiving. This appears to reaffirm that our marriage was, indeed, the right choice.

Having never actually roasted a turkey before, I did some internet research. I decided to follow Michael Ruhlman's Roast/Braise method, as the idea of keeping the turkey really moist seemed to be the biggest challenge. Basically, you stuff the turkey with all the good stuff: onions, herbs, citrus, then fill your pan with stock making goodies: more herbs, more onion, some carrots, celery (I used fennel, it was grand), a little tomato paste, a little alcohol (I used half a bottle of Riesling, but beer, whiskey, probably anything would do), then add water until the dark meat is resting in it.

When the white meat is cooked to 160 at the fattest part, you remove the turkey (this is harder than it sounds...), slice off the dark meat, and put the dark meat back into the braising liquid for a bit, while you cover the white meat to keep it juicy, tender and awesome.

So, aside from probably using too much tomato paste (so the broth was redder than I would have liked), I think it turned out really well.

In Carey family tradition, I removed and devoured the turkey neck.

Here's the turkey after the initial "roast" stage. This was the maiden voyage for the roasting pan we received from our wedding, as well as the baster (which was metal, so hard to see how much liquid you've pulled into it) and the meat thermometer. What Ruhlman's recipe doesn't mention is that one half of the turkey may cook faster than the other, so on one of your basting times, pull the turkey out, get the temp on each breast, and rotate accordingly. He also fails to account for the 12 lb turkey and 2/3 a roasting pan full of liquid being REALLY FREAKING HEAVY. Use adult supervision accordingly for the lifting, turning, whatever.When the cooler breast has reached 160, that's when I declared it done.

So, while the turkey was roasting, then the dark meat braising (seriously, the meat on this thing was so tender, and stayed so moist even through the week of leftovers), I got to work on the other aspects: mashed red potatoes with roasted shallots, Wendy's pecan sweet potatoes, and stuffing.

Although I have grown to appreciate real, gourmet stuffing, I still love the Pepperidge Farm stuff my mom used to make from the bag. We made two bags (yes, for two people... deal with it). This year I branched out a little and crumbled in a little cooked "all natural" sausage (about 1 1/2 packages for the two bags), but truly, that's as fancy as I'll get.

Here's the finished plate: Clockwise from top left: mashed red, turkey, stuffing, mashed sweet with pecans, and bread (which I picked up from Diamond City Bread in Elk River, after reading a colleague's profile of the place)

At some point, I also decided on a whim to use up the rest of my buttery pie dough and make another pie. I had already brought two pecan pies to the potluck (one with a homemade crust, one with a store-bought crust, which happened during my frustrating with my sticky homemade crust), and two chocolate pudding pies (again, tribute to my mother. They're simple, but she made them, and I love them). This was my fifth and final Thanksgiving 2011 pie: and yes, I'm still using that damn Pioneer Woman recipe from last year

So, all in all, I would call Thanksgiving 2.0 a success. You can see Jake smiling as he piles up his plate here. Happy husband, happy wife, happy Thanksgiving. :)

Fancy-pants grilled cheese

2011-12-03T11:11:00.001-05:00

So, I have some wonderful news to share! I recently accepted a job as the digital editor for a magazine called The Cooking Club. I am definitely sad to leave my job at the Strib but this is an amazing opportunity for me to combine my passions: digital journalism and cooking. Can't wait to get started, more details to come.

Now on to the food...

Jake and I have been meaning to get to our neighborhood bar for their fancy grilled cheese and veggies sandwiches for a while now. The place is a little pricey, and we tend to frequent it for brunch, so a few weeks ago, we decided to have date night in and try to figure them out ourselves.

I started by slicing up a red bell pepper, drizzling with a 1/2 tsp olive oil and some salt in one giant ramekin and slicing a red onion with a little red wine vinegar in the other. I roasted at 450 for about 30 minutes while I got the other stuff ready. I also broiled for 3-5 minutes to finish them.

We put our double cast irons to work to toast the buns we bought. I brushed them with truffle oil on each side before grilling.

We used four kinds of cheese: Brie (spread on the bottom), smoked gouda, mozzarella, and fontina. I also sauteed some portobello mushrooms in a little red wine and black pepper. We grilled them with just the cheese, covered for a few minutes to get the cheese melting, then piled on the toppings.

The finished product. I used the heated top cast iron again to press down and heat the sandwiches from both sides. We plated over baby arugula (which we both ended up stuffing into the sandwiches anyway) and a drizzle of truffle oil and salt.

#LetsLunch November: Food for seduction

2011-11-16T17:37:00.000-05:00

This month my LetsLunch group decided to choose sexy or seductive foods in honor of our friend Rashda's book debut, The Djinn's Dilemma. I'm a bit late to the party, as I've been sick, but here's my post.

Others in our group picked smoky soups, stews, donuts and jellies. Food for love, food for romance, all to fit the theme of Rashda's new romance novel!

Me? I went back to the place where I first learned how to cook. I started cooking in college and when I started, I began with a lot of Rachael Ray dishes.

I remember reading a quote she had in Good Housekeeping:
""I knew my boyfriend was the man to marry when I asked him what he would like for his birthday dinner," Rachael Ray writes in her cookbook Cooking 'Round the Clock. "I offered up lobster, steak, fine foods of all nationalities, to which he replied: 'Can I just have some of your carbonara?' Whoa! I was right about him....

I had never heard of carbonara, but I knew I wanted to try it. Now I'm a newly-wed myself, and my husband absolutely loves when I make this dish. It's one of our favorites!

So, for November's LetsLunch, raise a glass to our dear friend Rashda for her book release, and dig in to some lovely, creamy carbonara.

Carbonara starts with bacon or pancetta. I only had turkey bacon in the house, so use a little extra olive oil when cooking. Once the bacon is cooked through, add 3 cloves minced garlic and lower the heat. Then add one small palmful of red chile flakes and 1/3 cup white wine (only use something you would actually drink! And if you're cooking for seduction, you ought to have an open bottle of wine on hand). While this is all going on, cook 3/4 a pound of pasta to al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta water.

In a separate bowl, beat 2 egg yolks and 1 egg. While whisking continuously, slowly drizzle in about 1/2 cup of the pasta water to temper the eggs. Add salt and pepper and a big handful of shredded cheese. If you're using fresh herbs (parsley, basil, etc) chop and mix into the egg. If you want a creamier carbonara, add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup half and half or milk here. This will give the pasta a shiny, glossier finish and add a little decadence (as if pasta with bacon and tons of cheese isn't decadent enough).

Toss the pasta with the bacon mixture and mix well to coat, then pour the egg mixture over. Remove from heat and stir to combine. Let stand for 5-8 minutes and allow sauce to thicken. Serve with more cheese and freshly cracked pepper.

LetsLunch is a monthly meeting of food bloggers from around the globe. Send us a note on the hashtag #Letslunch if you'd like to join us! I'm @emmacarew

See what others have posted this month:

Rashda's Spicy Seafood Soup

Linda's West African Groundnut Stew

Joe's Overnight-Marinated Swordfish Stew

Grace's Pasta Puttanesca

Cathy's Roasted Pepper Jelly

Leigh's Apple Cider Donuts

Steff's Flirty Italian Snack

See you next month for festive sides!

Momofuku Milk Bar compost cookies

2011-10-24T23:37:00.000-04:00

This is a story about failure and success. It's also about cookies. And kind of about family.

I'll start with the part about family. This weekend I finally set aside some time to bake cookies to mail to my brother and two cousins, who are freshman in college (the cousins, not the brother). I will probably never forget how excited I was the first time I got non-university and non-parent mail at my dorm. It was a card from my aunt with a gift card and it 150% made my day.

Usually, my brother and his girlfriend get monster cookies, so those were definitely on the list. But, I have been wanting to try this recipe since Jake and I had the real Momofuku compost cookies at Milk Bar a couple of years ago.

I used the recipe on Amateur Gourmet but I got a little carried away with the mix ins. I probably ended up with at least double what he recommends for baking ingredients and snack mix-ins.

Now, we get to the part about failure. Below, please marvel at my giant failure. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you get all excited about getting to add potato chips and M&Ms and Milk Duds to your cookies. You accidentally forget to add THE DRY INGREDIENTS. Key stuff, like the flour, and the baking soda and baking powder. But, we scraped this scary stuff off the sheet and ate it anyway. It was kind of like cookie/candy/snack-brittle.

Back to the good stuff: success! and cookies! My cookies aren't quite as puffy as AG's are in the original recipe. But, I also used margarine instead of butter and, like I said, at least double his amounts for mix ins. Oh -- and the flour and leavening ingredients were added AFTER the fact.

But these cookies were very, very delicious. They were the first to go today at the office, between the bag of compost cookies and the bag of monster cookies. If I were to do it again, I would not use caramel candy melts or Milk Duds. The caramel really melts down at 400 degrees and you get weird caramel blobs sticking out of the edges of your cookies, which you later have to snap off so that the cookies are somewhat uniform for packing.

And, here they are. Three care packages, heading all over the country (Washington state, Colorado Springs, and Staten Island) for three college boys, whom I love and want to share baked goods with.

The moral of the story is this: it's important to love your family, and cook/bake them tasty things. It's also SUPER important to read the damn recipe and following the freaking directions.

Monster cookies recipe to follow....

Quick dinner: green curry and brown rice

2011-10-21T23:59:00.002-04:00

I finally got my hands on a couple of big tubs of curry paste, one red and one green. Where did I find them? WalMart of all places. And they were super cheap.

This was a quick dinner I threw together the other night. It was delicious and took less than 30 minutes.

If I were to buy ingredients especially for this, I think I would have used cashews instead of peanuts, and I would have added water chestnuts.

I think it would also be good with a piece of white fish or some shrimp and peapods.

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
2-3 TBS green curry paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 TBS oil
1/3-1/2 cup stock
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 can bamboo shoots
1 cup spinach leaves, chopped
1/3 cup peanuts
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, cut or torn into bite-sized pieces (I used two chicken thighs and it was a perfect amount)
cilantro to garnish

Heat garlic, onion and oil until fragrant. Fry curry paste with the garlic and onion, then add stock slowly to help break up the paste.
Add the pepper, bamboo, chicken and spinach and stir to cover with the curry mixture.
Slowly add the coconut milk and stir until completely combined. Heat 5 to 10 minutes more over medium heat.
Add peanuts for the last 5 minutes.

Serve over brown rice and top with chopped cilantro for garnish.

Honeymoon eating: the food in Hawaii

2011-10-18T08:12:00.000-04:00

Food for honeymooners. One of the best parts about our trip to Hawaii was the opportunity to eat a radically different cuisine for two whole weeks. No one's body is really meant to eat take out or restaurant food for that many meals in a row, but it definitely helped that there was so much fresh food in Hawaii.

Here are some of our highlights:

Poke from Side Street Inn -- we went here on a recommendation from friends (they all recommended the pork chop, but neither of us are huge pork chop people). This was easily the best poke we had in Hawaii. Rich, buttery, and super delicious.

The spicy fried chicken at Side Street in was also awesome. The menu warns you you'll wait a little longer for it, but the extra 10 or so minutes were worth it. It was crispy and juicy, and almost tasted like it had been marinated in sweet spicy may ploy sauce.

Kalua-style pig sliders - these were awesome. I'm a huge fan of any kind of pork bun (especially char siu bao or Momofuku pork buns) and these were such a nice combination of salty pork with the sweet grilled pineapple.

This was our first experience with roadside fruit stands. We bough cold coconuts from a nice lady on the North Shore. She also let us sample lilikoi (passionfruit), which were incredibly delicious. Sweet but tart, and with seeds somewhat similar in texture to pomegranates.

The North Shore is also home to more food trucks than I have ever seen in Minnesota. Most of them specialized in shrimp. We stopped at one at the ruins of an old sugar mill and got garlic shrimp and mahi mahi. I love how many of the lunch plates come served with rice and/or macaroni salad.

Spam musubi are everywhere. Perfectly wrapped little bundles of white rice, spam, usually at least one other ingredient (egg, cheese, furikake seasoning are common). They're a nice snack, and even the ones in the convenience stores are not bad. I even picked up my own musubi press to make them at home.

Eggs N Things was another place that came highly recommended by our friends. We stopped there one night for breakfast for dinner. This is definitely the way to go, as we drove by another morning and the line was out the door.

The spread at Ono Hawaiian foods. This was on Anthony Bourdain's list of places to go in Honolulu. He stopped here for authentic Hawaiian plates, and we had the same. Poi, a kind of beef jerky, lomi lomi, purple sweet potatoes, coconut gelatin and of course, spam, all came alongside our meal.

In the windward side of the island, we stopped in a town called Kailua (the subject of a recent NYT Travel story) for lunch and went to Agnes' portuguese diner for malassadas for dessert. These were great. We also had more malassadas the night we were at Aloha stadium -- after the game, the vendor was apparently trying to get rid of the excess dough. We got a huge bag of freshly fried malassadas for $5.

Our big night out in Honolulu was at Alan Wong's. We had gotten recommendations to come here but also warned that it was expensive. We bit the bullet anyway, and had a really incredible night out. Above, the bread. It's incredible. Warm, light and fluffy on the inside. I was tempted to ask for more of these instead of ordering dessert.

Jake's tomato salad - a whole blanched tomato, then sliced crosswise, and served with cucumbers and li-hing (sour plum) dressing. He liked it so much he almost ordered a second.

And, because we were honeymooning, the staff not only brought us a complimentary dessert (after we had ordered separate desserts!) but we got to take home custom menus from the night with our name (they spelled it wrong, but oh well!) and signed by the staff.

On Kauai we went to a fun tapas place for dinner the second night. Our waiter talked us through the menu, which led us to things like this dish: poke served with avocado foam. The appetizers leaned more toward the style of being sort of couture food, eclectic but not too weird.

This was some kind of char siu dim sum ball. They were awesome.

And our final stop on the "Anthony Bourdain went there" tour was Puka Dog (he went to the one on Waikiki, but we went to the one in Kauai). I was hesitant to try this at first, as I'm not a huge eater of hotdogs, but I was sold when I heard they offered a spicy lilikoi mustard. I had mine with pineapple sauce.

#LetsLunch October edition: Brown Sugar Shortbreads for High Tea

2011-10-07T12:55:00.000-04:00

Before I get to my post on high tea for this month's LetsLunch, I have two pieces of news to share!

First, I got married!

(photo by Glen Stubbe Photography)

Which was then followed by two amazing weeks in Hawaii for our honeymoon:

(me, after our amazing dinner at Alan Wong's -- which we went to Cheryl Tan's recommendation!)

The second bit of news, is that I made my debut in the Star Tribune Taste section yesterday, with my piece about baking my friends' wedding cake in August (previous posts about my cake baking trials here, here and here). You can read the piece here.

But back to LetsLunch: this month marks my one-year anniversary of contributing to LetsLunch, after being invited by Cheryl late last summer. All of my LetsLunch posts are archived here.

I'm only an occasional food blogger, so I love coming up with a recipe and photographing it each month. This month I've been a bit busy (see previous two pieces of news) and we just returned from Hawaii last weekend.

The topic we picked for September, then slid into October, is High Tea. Who doesn't love a good cup of tea? Karyn, the recipient of the wedding cake baking, is the friend who first turned me on to looseleaf tea in college.

My boyfriend-then fiance-now husband (!) and I really got back into looseleaf tea last winter, leading up to the current moratorium on buying new teas.

(Our current tea stash and Teavanna tea maker)

When you drink a lot of looseleaf tea, you start to find out about how most tea really doesn't get brewed with boiling water and it really does matter how long you let the tea steep. I have little notes on all of my tea with the different specifics for herbal teas (tisanes -- there's no actual tea leaves in most of these blends), white teas, green teas, etc.

My LetsLunch to go along with the High Tea theme is a shortbread cookie with a dollop of pineapple-passion fruit jam -- both purchased at the Aloha Stadium swap meet in Honolulu.

RECIPE: Brown Sugar Shortbread (adapted from The Essential Baking Cookbook)
(makes one half-sheet pan of shortbread cookies)

8 ounces of butter, softened (two sticks)
3/4 cups soft brown sugar
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup rice flour, semolina or corn flour (I used instant masa flour)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp all spice

Preheat oven to 315 degrees F. Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper.

In a medium sized bowl cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes).

Sift together the flours. Add slowly to the sugar and butter, with a pinch of salt and the spices. Mix with a butter knife until the dough comes together. Gather and knead for 1 minute.

Chill the dough for about 20 minutes, then press into your pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool the shortbreads 10-15 minutes in the pan, then make slices with a butter knife. Spread a tiny dollop of jam on each (about 1/4 tsp-1/2 tsp). Cool completely before eating.
--

LetsLunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and I was invited by fellow AAJA-er, Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

Our group is always growing! If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

See what everyone else made this month:

High Tea at The Kitchen Trials
Tea and Kaya Toast at Spicebox Travels
Rich Tea at Grongar blog
Little Lemon Meringue Tarts at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Pierogies

2011-09-03T01:39:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I cook when I get stressed. Keeping track of ingredients, keeping my hands busy with making something delicious helps keep me calm.

The other night, I was feeling stressed, and knew I wanted to make something delicious and handmade. After squeezing all the liquid out of those zucchinis previously, I had been thinking about my Aunt Kathy's cabbage pierogies.

Not wanting to go quite as far as to steam and squeeze multiple heads of cabbage, I instead opted for the comfort food of cheese, potato and onion filled pierogies.

Aunt Kathy uses a Martha Stewart pierogie dough recipe, which I like. My filling consisted of salted boiled potatoes, some lactose free coffee creamer, crumbled queso fresco (it's what we had in the house -- but any salty cheese will do), and onions that I had carmelized into a sweet paste-like consistency.

About half the little dumplings got fried in the handy cast iron, while the other half were boiled in salted water. I like mine served with sour cream and any leftover carmelized onions (there weren't any this time). We also had leftover of the curried yogurt sauce from the zucchini fritters, so I dipped in that as well.

They're not quite the crunchy flaky consistency of the pierogies at Veselka but they have a nice, doughy, homey flavor to them. Sweet and savory, hot and filling -- the perfect comfort food.

Aunt Kathy's Pierogies:

(adapted from Martha Stewart)
1 beaten egg
2 TBS sour cream
1 cup water
1 cup milk
5 cups all purpose flour

Whisk the sour cream into the egg, then slowly add the milk, then the water. Stir in most of the flour, then use the rest to knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes.

Invert a bowl over the dough and let it rest for about an hour.

Cut off a softball sized chunk of dough, cover the rest with a damp towel. Roll the dough into an inch-wide rope and divide into walnut sized balls. Roll each one out until it's 4-5 inches in diameter and thin.

Use a small cookie scoop to fill in the center, shaping the filling slightly with your fingers. Fold the dough over and pinch on all sides.

Boil or fry (or in some cases, boil all of them, then fry -- depends on what you're in the mood for).

You made need to salt before serving.

Filling:

Mashed potatoes + carmelized onions (I follow Serious Eats' guide to carmelizing onions) + a salty cheese

Steamed, squeezed cabbage + cream cheese + shredded cheese

plain potato

farmers cheese

Delicious zucchini fritters

2011-08-31T21:37:00.001-04:00

Fritters seem to be the delicious side dish of the summer. In the past week alone, I've seen recipes for corn fritters, chickpea fritters and the recipe I finally decided to make: zucchini fritters.

I took a few liberties from the Smitten Kitchen recipe. For one, I doubled it. I used 4 small zucchinis and 2 small yellow squashes. Deb from SK recommends putting the squashes through a food processor fitted with the shredding disc.

After about 10 minutes of salting, you have to drain the squashes. Last year when Aunt Kathy taught me how to make pierogies we drained pounds and pounds of cabbage. Draining the zucchini works the same. I wrapped them in a flour sack towel, twisted the towel and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze until all the liquid drains out. It's actually kind of incredible how much liquid gets drawn out of the vegetables from such a small amount of salt. But, this helps keep the fritters from getting soggy

I mostly stuck to the batter recipe put forth in the original recipe. I added a clove of garlic and substituted wheat flour for the regular white flour. I shaped about half of the batter into patties on a baking sheet, then fried the rest.

In the end, I liked the fried ones a little better. The baked ones were a little softer than I would have liked. I think if I had flattened them a bit more before the baking, they would have been crisper.

RECIPE: Zucchini Fritters (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
4 small to medium sized zucchinis, washed and ends cut off
2 small to medium sized yellow summer squash, ends cut off
1 TBS coarse salt
4 to 6 scallions, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
3 eggs beaten
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Shred the zucchini and squash using a food processor, then toss with salt. Set aside for 10 minutes, then squeeze as much liquid from the vegetables as possible.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, stir in scallions, garlic, and zucchini. Mix to combine. Add flour and baking powder and mix until the flour is completely incorporated.

Drop walnut sized balls into a cookie sheet or into a cast iron pan. If baking, bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then flip, and bake another 5 to 10 minutes. I used a standard sized "small" cookie scoop to form the balls and they were perfect. Flatten with a spatula before baking or flipping in the frying pan.

Serve with greek yogurt sauce (greek yogurt + minced garlic + fresh herbs of your choosing + lemon zest and lemon juice).

#LetsLunch: cold entrees edition (August)

2011-08-20T00:03:00.001-04:00

The first time I had mulnaengmyun was the first day I arrived in Korea the summer of 2007. One of my housemates took me out to lunch and to beat the heat, she suggested we get a cold lunch.

When I came back to the States, I was obsessed with finding a way to make the cold, chewy noodle soup on my own. During my internship the next summer, I finally took the plunge and purchased a naengmyun kit from the local Korean market.

I got it home, only to realize I couldn't read the instructions on the packet of "soup" base. Did I just freeze it? Did it need to be mixed with water like condensed soup?

Luckily, a fellow intern was also Korean and so I brought the packet in and asked if he could read it. He couldn't -- but called his dad and read the packet to him, so his father could translate for me. Patrick and I still laugh about the ridiculousness of that day, and last summer, we reunited in L.A. for a journalism convention and went out for mul naengmyun.

These days, I make my own broth for Korean mul naengmyun (which translates roughly to water noodles, there's also bibim naengmyun which is noodles with cold toppings mixed in), though if you ever do buy the store-bough packages, all you have to do is chill the broth packet (some people like it semi-frozen) and serve.

Naengmyun continues to be one of my favorite summer meals. When I'm feeling ambitious, I'll occasionally pack it for lunch. The great thing about naengmyun is that it cools you from the inside out, so it's perfect for a lazy week night dinner when you don't feel like heating up your house.

I consider there to be four main components of great mul naengmyun: the broth, the noodles, the toppings and the seasoning.

The broth is easy enough. Some recipes just call for simmering a brisket in water, then cooling. I like to boil mushroom pieces (usually stems from shitaki mushrooms or leftover baby portobellos) with dashi (which, I think can best be described as Korean beef boullion) and a few dried anchovies (kelp also make a decent substitute here). I make my broth extra strong then dillute by pouring over ice. But if you make your broth on a day when it's not so hot in the kitchen, make it to regular strength and cool.

If you have some leftover kimchi liquid, that makes a good addition too (though it's not 100% neccessary).

The noodles should be chewy and chilly. If you're using noodles from the fridge packs (that you purchase in the store), they only need to be cooked for about 60 seconds. If you're using dried noodles, usually more like 90 seconds. Do *not* over cook your noodles!!

My trick is to just boil a tea kettle, then pour the hot water over the noodles in a bowl, and check after 90 seconds, before rinsing. To stop the hot water cooking the noodles, you have to rinse the noodles under cold water (watch Maangchi's naengmyun video to get an idea of how aggressively you need to rinse!)

The toppings should be made while the broth and noodles are cooking (or ahead of time). My favorite toppings are cucumber, pickled daikon, pear (traditional is Korean or Asian pear, but I usually end up using regular Anju) and beef or pork. Some people also like to include a hardboiled egg.

I use a vegetable peeler to make thin ribbons of daikon, then quick pickle in 3:1 sugar to salt (adding a dash or two of garlic salt gives a nice flavor too!) Cut the cucumbers into matchsticks, and slice the beef or pork thinly. It's best if you have leftover bulgogi or a steak, because then the meat is already cold. But, if you're bbqing it fresh, just toss it on a plate in the freezer when you're done.

The seasoning is really the easiest part, but for each bowl you should have sesame oil (just a little -- I sometimes will drizzle a spoonful over the noodles to keep them from sticking), rice vinegar, Chinese mustard and a big dollop of gochuchang (Korean chile paste -- you can substitute sriracha rooster sauce if you don't have/can't find).

Fill each bowl with noodles, pour cold broth and a few ice cubes over, top with cucumbers, daikon and meat. Season with vinegar, mustard and gochuchang until sour and spicy enough for your liking!

RECIPE: Mul Naeng Myun (Korean ice water noodles)
NOTE: I usually substitute with a regular pear, but if you can get Asian pears cheaply, go for the real deal! And the meat can really be anything you have on hand -- double points if it's seasoned or marinate like Korean bulgogi.

4-6 oz dried naengmyun noodles (often labeled "buckwheat" or "arrowroot" noodles in the store)
1/4 cup mushroom pieces and stems, shitaki or portobello work well.
2 TBS dashi powder
4-8 dried anchovies (can also substitute a similar amount of dried kelp)
2 quarts water

Toppings:
1 4-inch piece of daikon radish (more if you plan on having more than a single serving)
1 tsp salt, 3 tsp sugar
1 small pickling cucumber
1 Asian pear
1/3 cup thinly sliced beef or pork
optional: 1 hard-boiled egg, thinly sliced scallions, toasted sesame seeds
ice cubes
Rice vinegar, spicy mustard and gochuchang for seasoning.

* In a medium saucepan, combine mushroom pieces, dashi powder, anchovies and water and bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer and cover 15-25 minutes.
* While the broth is cooking, use a vegetable peeler make thin ribbons of the daikon. Mix with the salt and sugar mix in a bowl and set aside.
* Slice the cucumber into matchstick style pieces. You can also quick pickle these, or leave them raw.
* Thinly slice the pear. If it's going to be a while before you eat the soup, mix with a tsp of sugar and cover.
* Boil enough water to cover the noodles generously. Break the noodles in half and add to the water for 90 seconds. Test the noodles for doneness by pulling on them. They should snap but have not easily.
* Rinse the noodles in cold water vigorously to stop the cooking. Drizzle with sesame oil to avoid sticky noodles and set aside.
* Fill stainless steel bowl (it needs to be pretty big) with 4-6 ice cubes and ladle in 2 cups of the concentrated broth. Stir to cool the broth completely, then add your noodles.
* Rinse the daikon pieces well and squeeze to remove excess water.
* Top the noodles with equal amounts of meat, daikon pickles, cucumber and pear pieces. Start with about 1 TBS of gochuchang.
* Drizzle mustard and rice vinegar on to taste. I like mine very spicy and very sour.

Enjoy!

--
LetsLunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and I was invited by fellow AAJA-er, Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

See what everyone else made this month:

Cathy‘s Jasmine Tea-Poached Shrimp Summer Rolls at Showfood Chef

Charles‘s Cold Olive Oil-Poached Chicken, Potato & Watercress Salad with Buttermilk at The Taste of Oregon

Cheryl's Spicy Sichuan Sesame Noodles at A Tiger In the Kitchen

Danielle‘s Cous Cous with Cilantro Pesto & Halloumi at Beyond The Plate

Eleanor‘s Cold Noodles with Stir-Fried Vegetables, Hoisin Pork & Spicy Shrimp at Be A Wok Star

Linda‘s Gazpacho Rolls Gone Wrong at Free Range Cookies

Lisa‘s Byron Sprout Salad with Chargrilled Chicken at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Mai‘s Strawberry Soup at Cooking in The Fruit Bowl

Maria‘s Croque Monsieur with Bechamel at Maria’s Good Things

Rashda‘s Indian-Style Gazpacho at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Rebecca‘s Cold Roasted Lamb with Mustard & Rosemary at Grongar Blog

Victor‘s Seafood Napoleon at The Taste of Oregon

Our group is always growing! If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

Summer dinners: pizzas on the grill

2011-08-16T15:51:00.000-04:00

Jake and I have been talking about grilling pizzas pretty much since the day we purchase our new grill. Last week, we finally got around to it.

And, since I've been trying (with on-again-off-again success) to eat lower carb, we decided to walk from our house to Cosetta's Italian grocery (and restaurant) in downtown St. Paul to pick up our ingredients. If you're not familiar with St. Paul's geography, this walk, though only a mile each way, involves the trek up a GIANT hill from our neighborhood to downtown.

Not wanting to make that trek again any time soon, we picked up an extra pizza dough for the freezer. Here's my dough, stretched out on my cookie sheet (we split the dough into 4 and each made two little pizzas)

We made a quick sauce out of a can of San Marzano tomatoes seasoned with basil. This made a ton of leftover too, so I split the remainder and popped it in the freezer. I also added hot pepper flakes and sliced garlic to mine.

The toppings station: tomato sauce, basil, spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic, oregano, red onion, zucchini, and fresh mozzarella

Pizza 1: basil, zucchini slices, artichoke hearts and cheese:

Pizza 2: sliced garlic, artichoke, red onion, spinach

Some tips? don't over do it on the sauce! Mine got a little wet in the process. Jake likes to use foil on the grill under the pizzas to make them easier to get on/off the grill.

The pizza was delicious, and made plenty for leftovers. And, since we had extra supplies, we'll be able to grill pizzas again sometime soon!

And, as an added bonus, I made cannolis! We picked up some shells from Cossetta (the Alessi brand ones -- they were $6 for six shells, but totally worth it). 16 oz of whole milk ricotta was enough to fill all 6, with a good amount left over. I mixed the ricotta with powdered sugar (about 1/2 cup), cinnamon (about 1 tsp), chopped chocolate and crushed pistachios, then piped into the shells. Delicious!

Things I've cooked lately (lots of photos)

2011-07-15T11:24:00.000-04:00

It's finally summer! My go-to hot weather meal: mul naengmyun (Korean ice water noodles)

Last month's LetsLunch offering: sweet potato hand pies

Had some leftover dough and leftover Chinese sausage, so made pigs in a blanket

Giant pile of jalapenos -- expertly sliced and seeded by Jake!

Filled with cheese mix, some rolled in a crispy coating

Others just filled with cheese and wrapped in bacon

Carolina came over and together we made this awesome strawberry icebox cake made using this recipe from The Kitchn blog.

So many jalapeno poppers!

Grilled veggies, chicken and brie dinner. We've been eating a TON of grilled zucchini, summer squash and eggplant this year.

Lentils and chorizo salad. I think this was seasoned with cumin, garlic and onion.

Sriracha coleslaw -- one of my favorites for summer.

Karyn's wedding is SO close! These were cakes and cupcakes I made for tasting back in May. We ultimately ditched the peanut butter filling in favor of mixing in some white cake with orange zest buttercream.

Happy birthday to me! Baked myself a red velvet cake this year and loved every bite.

And, three days later, Happy Birthday, Jake! Chocolate with peanut butter mousse for his surprise birthday party.

Kimchi chiggae made with older, funky kimchi.

Skillet cornbread (served with whipped honey butter) for Wendy and Nicole's Soul Food Potluck

Roasted chicken quarters, served with veggie pasta

Veggie pasta -- one of the best recipes I've thrown together in a long time! Zucchini, onion, summer squash, and spinach + white wine, browned chicken bits from the pan + melted Laughing Cow cheese + pasta water It was slightly creamy, veggies still a bit firm and just awesome.

Red lentils soup with chicken sausage and spinach. Another thrown together creation after doing some reading on lentils. Cooked the lentils like pasta, then mixed with a little thickened chicken stock to make a stew like consistency.

#LetsLunch July edition: champagne companion bites

2011-07-15T11:09:00.000-04:00

Hooray! Another LetsLunch month and this month I did a little work ahead of time (made this on Monday) so I wasn't scrambling at the last minute.

This month, to toast the two-year anniversary of Cheryl Tan and the others' great idea to have a "virtual" lunch date, we chose small bites to go with champagne.

I have been wanting to try cold smoking salmon for a while now and finally took the plunge. I mostly followed this recipe from Serious Eats to "quick cure" but also took some notes from Andrew Zimmern's recipe and technique here.

Start with Juniper berries. The great thing about these is that I purchased them from the bulk section at my co-op and I only bought about what I would need, rather than buying a whole bottle or bag at a spice store. I think my total cost for a heaping tablespoon of the dried berries was $0.20 or so. I used my mortar and pestle to crush them up a bit

Very thinly sliced fresh salmon

Spice mixture: brown sugar, sea salt, pepper, crushed juniper and dill. I started with about 3:1 ratio of sugar to salt (following David Chang's quick pickles ratio... figured it would probably translate here) and added the pepper, berries and dill. When I tasted later, I found there was too much juniper, so rinsed the salmon and repacked with more sugar, salt and dill.

Mix, mix, mix

Completely coat your salmon slices. Then, flatten the bag to a single layer and press it between two plates. Chill for two or more hours, then drain and rinse the salmon.

Serve on dark bread with herbed cream cheese. Cheers!

--
LetsLunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

I'll update with more posts from the other LetsLunch-ers as I find them throughout the day!

Charissa's Bacon, Apple and Swiss Quiche at Zest Bakery
Ellise's Sundried Tomato Pesto Palmiers at Cowgirl Chef
Cheryl's Cheddar Pecan Crisps at A Tiger in the Kitchen
Lisa's Salmon Tartare at Monday Morning Cooking Club

#LetsLunch: Pies edition

2011-06-10T14:27:00.001-04:00

June edition of LetsLunch already? This month we're tackling pies. Now, you're probably looking at my photo and saying, hmm, decidedly NOT a pie, yes?

I first made these hand pies at Easter (mostly as a means to use up random items in my fridge to make room for the Easter food, but also to have something to snack on while I was cooking, so I wasn't tempted to pick at the Easter food) and loved them.

When pies were being bounced around as our June theme for LetsLunch, I knew I would probably make a savory pie option. Over the past few years, I have definitely gotten much more adventurous about food but there is one quirk I refuse to budge on: cooked fruit.

So yes, this means I rarely eat apple pie, peach pie, rhubarb pie and all those other crazy cooked fruit pies (I had a nice lemon pie I liked once.... ). And yes, I know there are plenty of non-fruit sweet pies, but they all scream WINTER to me, rather than SUMMER.

This month, I'm offering up Chinese sausage and roasted sweet potato hand pies. (also, a small disclaimer, I haven't actually made these yet today. My plan is to get a batch in tomorrow to serve at our housewarming party.

RECIPE: Chinese sausage and roasted sweet potato hand pies
Ingredients:
2 pie crusts (I used the ones that come rolled up in a sleeve, but I developed this dish trying to use them up, so certainly, homemade would work)
2 sweet potatoes, pricked with holes
1/2 medium onion, diced
2-4 logs Chinese sausag, sliced thinly and each round cut in half
small pat of softened butter (~ 1 tsp) or reserve some of the rendered fat when you cook the sausage
1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp brown sugar
1 beaten egg white mixed with 1 TBS milk or water
kosher salt or sea salt
fresh cracked pepper

* Bake the sweet potatoes at 375 for 1 hour or until they are soft. If you hear popping noises, run for the oven and retrieve your potatoes! Don't forget to prick your potatoes with holes so the steam can escape.
* While the potatoes are roasting, heat the sausage pieces and onions together over medium heat until the onion has softened and the fat from the sausage has rendered.
* Cool the potatoes slightly then slice in half and scoop out the flesh. Mix in the fat (butter or from the sausage), the cinnamon, the sugar and the onion and sausage. Spread on a plate or a baking sheet covered i wax paper to cool completely.
* Roll out the pie die and cut into squares or circles. They should be about 4 to 6 inches in diameter.
* Fill each pie with 1-2 TBS of the filling (don't over-fill!) and pinch the dough together tightly.
* Brush with the beaten egg wash and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
* Return to oven and bake on a lined cookie sheet for 10-20 minutes until the pie crust is golden brown.
* Cool entirely (if you can wait that long!) and serve warm-ish.

Let's Lunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

I'll update with more posts from the other LetsLunch-ers as I find them throughout the day!

Cathy's Nutella Hand Pies at Showfood Chef

Rebecca's Spanakopita and Rhubarb Crisp at GrongarBlog (Welcome, Rebecca!)

Charissa's Lime-Custard & Curd Pie at Zest Bakery

Linda's Dirt Pie with Compost Cookie Crust at Free Range Cookies

Cheryl's Japanese Curry Pot Pie at A Tiger In The Kitchen

Denise's Summer Chicken Pot Pie at Chez US

Rashda's Pecan Pie at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Mai's (Mother-in-Law's) Lemon Meringue Pie at Cooking In The Fruit Bowl

Lisa's Pilaf Pie with Chicken, Sultanas and Sweet Spices at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Kimchi chiggae : Korean kimchi stew

2011-05-10T22:01:00.000-04:00

Last week for #LetsLunch, Karen (whom we were honoring with liquid lunches) asked me if mine was going to be kimchi soup.

Sadly, it wasn't -- I made a ham bone soup with my Easter leftovers. But, I promised her I would write up a post with my kimchi chiggae (also sometimes spelled kimchi jiggae) recipe, so, here it is!

Normally, you make kimchi chiggae to use up the end of a big jar of kimchi. I haven't had kimchi in a while, so I made it using new kimchi. It was still delicious. But -- it's best with older, funkier kimchi that has had some time to get crazy.

So, you start with some pork cut into small bite size pieces. You want a fattier cut of pork - like pork belly. This is some pork shoulder steaks that I bought on sale:

I let mine marinate in sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine for about 30 minutes, then ran it quickly through a very hot wok. I also sprinkled some gochugaru (Korean hot chili flakes) to give it a little heat, the way pork bulgogi is often served.

Next, chop up some kimchi. Try to reserve as much of the juice as possible -- this helps to flavor the broth. I chop mine on a plastic cutting board, then rinse the cutting board with a little water into the wok. If you have extra juices in the jar, dump them in too.

Heat the kimchi over medium to high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from burning. Add half an onion (sliced thinly), 2 TBS sugar, 2 TBS gochuchang (Korean chili paste) and at least 8 cups of water.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Add the pork.

After 15-20 minutes, mix in 2 cans of tuna meat (rinse it first), 1/2 block of firm tofu cut into squares, and 1 bunch of green onions sliced into 1-inch pieces.

Drizzle sesame oil over stew before serving. Serve with hot white rice.

RECIPE: Kimchi chiggae

2 cups diced pork (marinate in soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine and sugar)

2 cups cubed tofu (use firm or extra firm)

3-4 cups kimchi, chopped

1 half onion, sliced thinly

8 cups water

2 TBS sugar

2 TBS gochuchang (Korean chili paste)

2 TBS sesame oil

1 bunch green onions (sliced into 1-inch pieces)

2 cans white tuna meat (rinsed)

* Stir fry pork and set aside. If there are drippings left over, leave them in the wok.

* Add the kimchi to the wok with the pork drippings and cook 5 minutes.

* Add onion, sugar, gochuchang and water. Heat to a boil, then reduce heat slightly. Add the pork. Simmer 15-20 minutes or until kimchi softens.

* Mix in the tuna, tofu and green onions. Heat 5 more minutes then finish with sesame oil.

* Serve with white rice.

#LetsLunch: liquid diet edition

2011-05-06T15:53:00.003-04:00

Hooray! The triumphant return of the blog! and just in time for #LetsLunch, the monthly meeting of food-types with blogs, hosted by Cheryl Tan of A Tiger In The Kitchen.

Each month, after posting, Cheryl prods us into our next theme for lunch. Last month, as soon as Karen, of Geofooding, said she'd have to sit this round out (due to being on a liquid diet due to cancer surgery) we all threw our hats in the ring for a #LetsLunch Liquid Diets.

So, the day is today. I initially thought my offering might not make the cut (there are some decidedly non-liquid elements in my soup here...) But this is a soup I made after Easter because I can't bear to just throw out food animal parts (ie: a perfectly good ham hock).

So, I started my soup with the leftover ham from Easter, some leeks and a little garlic. I really wish I would have had time to completely cool the stock and skim the fat that inevitably rises to the top, but I didn't have time. The soup was still tasty, but it would have been nice.

I had never made a ham hock soup before (the usual ham soup ingredients don't really appeal to me, such as peas or white beans) so I wasn't totally clear how to proceed. I asked around on Facebook and Twitter (and got some great advice, as usual).

Instead of white beans I used black, the added the ham (lots of it!) and potatoes. I wanted to add zucchini to make it a little healthier, but people advised they could turn to mush sitting in the soup.

So, I fried the zucchini separately, tossed with oregano and breadcrumbs to make "croutons" which I added to my bowl just before serving. The zukes stayed somewhat crunchy this way but I still got to have them as a nice fresh addition.

Liquid Lunch ham hock soup:

1 ham hock

2 leeks (sliced thinly)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

Water (cover the ham hock or fill the pot about 2/3 of the way)

3-4 cups diced ham

2 cans black beans (rinsed)

2-3 cups diced potatoes (I used fingerlings, but you could use whatever you have on hand)

1-2 cups zucchini, sliced and quartered

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp* dried oregano (this amount is a total guess... go crazy, add as much as you need)

1-2 TBS bread crumbs

1 tsp each (or more to taste) cumin, white pepper

Fresh parsley, chopped, to serve

* Cover ham hock, leeks and garlic with water and simmer 1 hour. If you have time, cool completely and skim any fat that rises to the top. If you just want to get to the part where you sit down to a hot bowl of soup, ignore and press on.

* Remove the ham hock (carefully! splatters of hot stock HURT). Pull off any meat that's been boiled loose. Chop to bite-size pieces and return to the broth.

* Add ham and potatoes. Continue to cook over medium heat 15-20 mins, then add the black beans.

* In a separate pan, saute or grill the zucchini in the olive oil with the bread crumbs and oregano. Add more oregano if needed.

* Season your soup with the cumin and white pepper. It should taste ham-y, smoky, and have a nice bite to it.

* Put a few spoonfuls of the zucchini "croutons" in your bowl, then ladle hot tasty soup over. Serve with fresh parsley.

Let's Lunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

Check out the liquid lunch offerings from the others:

Cheryl’s Miso Bacon Corn Chowder at Tiger in the Kitchen.
Caitlin’s Spring Green Soup at her book tour blog
Linda’s Crack Pie Inspired Shake at Free Range Cookies.
Rashda’s Spring Pea and Mint Soup at Hot Curries & Cold Beer.
Ellise’s Cucumber-Avocado Gazpacho at Cowgirl Chef.

Mai's Peanut Butter Espresso Smoothie at Cooking in the Fruit Bowl

Eleanor's Turnip Pork Soup at Be a Wok Star

Cathy's Almond Nut Milk Granita at ShowFood Chef

Steff's Gazpacho at The Kitchen Trials

Oh, and please, please, please raise your glass (or bowl... if you're having a liquid lunch) to our friend, Karen, at Geofooding, and her fight against cancer.

PS - Karen, Cheryl & Rashda: stay tuned for the Kimchi Chiggae post I promised earlier!

A tale of two curries

2011-03-24T17:39:00.000-04:00

So, although Jake attempted to impose a "no new food" moratorium after seeing the mountain of St. Patrick's Day leftovers in our fridge, I got around that "regulation" by making a recipe I knew he would love: tofu tikka masala.

But, this post is called a tale of TWO curries, not just one. So, yes. I made a tofu tikka masla AND a chana masala. I adapted two web recipes here and here and followed one main caveat: if I don't have it, it doesn't go in.

Jake's curry

Emma's curry

Somehow, mine ended up a little too spicy, so I made a quick yogurt sauce with the sweet curry powder from Penzeys mixed with smoked paprika.

I also didn't have any garam masala on hand, so mixed my own a bit haphazardly. I also didn't have any fresh ginger, so relied heavily on my powdered. Pro tip: measure your yogurt for the tikka masala. Mine just got plopped in until it appeared to be the right color, but then tasted heavily of yogurt. I jazzed it up with about a teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, tumeric and sweet curry powder.

Both were super delicious, but kind of needed a veggie aspect. I think next time I'll try to attempt a spinach or palak paneer type side dish. But, both curries were not a terrible first try.

Happy St. Paddy's 2011

2011-03-22T22:23:00.000-04:00

Strange as it may be, St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays of the year. Not personally being of Irish descent myself, I consider myself to be close enough, as both sides of my family have Irish in them.

The last few years, I've gone all out trying to perfect my corned beef and cabbage dinner recipe. The last two years, I have simmered the beef until they're nearly done, then baked to finish with a brown sugar and Guinness or brown sugar and whiskey glaze.

St. Paddy's 2010

St. Paddy's 2009

So, this year I decided to up the ante a little and cure my own corned beef. I found a method for this on ruhlman.com last year, about two days into the leftovers of 2010's feast. I decided that this year, I would try attempt this process.

I now live very near to a Penzeys Spices store, which is both awesome and terrible. Every time I stop by, it's at least a $20 trip -- just for spices. Again. Awesome and terrible. I stopped there to pick up pickling spice (it smells amazing)

Ruhlman's recipe explains that the pink curing salt isn't 100% necessary, but I didn't want to skip any steps at all. In the spirit of buying local, I decided to try and get this stuff nearby, but found my neighborhood butchers were out of it. I ordered a few packets of this stuff online:

I started with three briskets, and put my kimchi bucket to good use to hold the meat and the brine.

I followed the recipe for the brine on Ruhlman's site exactly, put it out on the back porch to cool, then filled my kimchi/corning bucket up to the brim. These little guys went into the fridge for 4 days (1 day shy of Ruhlman's recommendation).

On Friday, the day before our St. Paddy's day party, I freaked out, worried we wouldn't have enough corned beef or cabbage. So I ran to the store and bought three more corned beef briskets to simmer.

I followed your basic simmer and wait recipe for both the home-corned and store bought briskets, and dumped a bottle of Guinness into each pot. The same pots of water-turned-stock and Guinness were used for the cabbage (of which I had also freaked out and purchased way too many...)

But eating my corned beef and cabbage dinner was too damn exciting, and I forgot to take a photo of the whole thing. However, as usual, dear friend Wendy comes through again with a wonderful photo of the meal:

The big win from this year's St. Patrick's day dinner was finally nailing down the recipe for a brown sugar and Guinness glaze. I made a big pot using 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 3 Guinness extra stouts, and 1/4 cup corn starch slurry. The corn starch is the key to helping to make the reduction silky rather than just sticky.

Here it is drizzled over my Monday morning corned beef hash:

#LetsLunch: Spring small bites edition

2011-03-18T12:37:00.001-04:00

This month for Let's Lunch, our group mashed up two ideas: small bites for March Madness and spring recipes for spring.

I'm really glad we pushed back a week, because it allowed Minneapolis to thaw slightly so that it actually DOES look a bit like spring here.

To me, nothing says spring like radishes, which I've really only started to eat in the last year or so. I went to Trader Joe's looking for something creative to pair the radishes with and found a nice piece of "honey chevre." It sounded delicious and I thought the nice floral notes of honey would balance with the bite of radish.

My original intention was to do some kind of puff pastry wrap or layer on toasted baguette. But, as many of you know, I'm recently engaged, so therefore am trying to cut back on white carbs, such as toasted baguette or buttery puff pastry.

Enter mini phyllo cups. My new best friend, at 25 calories for a serving, compared to 170 on the puff pastry.

Problem solved. And, these little bites are delicious, spring-like and super easy.

Let's Lunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

--

RECIPE:

Ingredients:
1 bunch red radishes
1 package of mini phyllo cups (there were 15 in the package I bought)
1 log honey chevre (or any tasty soft cheese -- I found mine at Trader Joe's)
1 scallion, dark green parts (chives would also be tasty)

* Set the phyllo cups in a tin pie pan or on a baking sheet. Preheat your oven to 350
* Wash your radishes and slice off the tops and bottoms. Slice them on a mandoline, or very carefully using a paring knife. If they are larger than a quarter or so in diameter, cut them in half.
* Slice the cheese and use clean fingers to press about 1/2 tsp into the well of each phyllo cup.
* Bake the cups for 6-8 minutes until the cheese is melty.
* Press the radishes into each cup (I used my slices to make "fairy" wings -- like on a cupcake)
* Sprinkle with sliced scallions or chives.

Check out the other #letslunch blogger's offerings this month:

Linda's Breakfast Cookies, at Free Range Cookies
Ellise's Bite-size Black Pepper and Strawberry Scones, at Cowgirl Chef
Karen's Sushi Sushi, at Geofooding
Cheryl's Popiah, at A Tiger in the Kitchen

More links to come as I find them!

"whoopsie" pies - an accidental success

2011-02-20T22:52:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm home on Mondays instead of Saturdays, I try to make my day off a mix of a few things: relaxing and occasionally staying in bed until noon, running my errands, and doing some serious damage in the kitchen.

A few weeks ago, I decided to do another test run on the cakes I'm baking for a friend's wedding this summer. I was pretty sure I had locked into a cake recipe, but wanted to try another just to be sure. I chose this recipe from Pioneer Woman.

You'll notice the title of this post isn't "really awesome test run cupcakes." So, clearly a few things went wrong.

First, I somehow ran out of cupcake papers, so I was forced to use my silicone cupcake tray. I'm not a huge fan of this, because it usually makes squat little cakes rather than nice fluffy ones.

Next, and more importantly, I somehow managed to leave the leavening agent out of the cake batter. So my first batch of "cupcakes" came out like little hockey puck cakelettes. I halved the baking soda in the recipe and added it for the second batch.

My second batch stuck to the silicone pan and were mostly ruined, until I decided to lop off the bottoms and just use the tops to make whoopie pies.

So, I sliced all the little flat cakes in half, and paired them up along side the more cake-like tops of the actual cupcakes. I whipped a batch of the peanut butter mousse I will probably use for the wedding this summer and my "whoopsie" pies were born.

The slightly smaller ones are the ones without baking soda, and the larger ones on the upper right are the more cakelike ones.

Overall, they were still really delicious. I think I like my original whoopie pies recipe better but this was definitely a decent way to save this recipe.

PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE FILLING:
Mix 1 stick of butter with 1 cup of peanut butter on high. Slowly add 1 tsp vanilla and about 2 cups of powdered sugar.
If filling is too crumbly, dribble up milk one teaspoon at a time. Add 1 more cup of powdered sugar, or until fluffy.

LetsLunch: Lucky recipes edition

2011-02-14T16:57:00.000-05:00

OK, I'll admit I *knew* it was LetsLunch week at some point last week but when Friday came around I totally spaced...

We decided our February LetsLunch date would be "lucky" foods, in honor of the lunar new year celebration during the first-ish week the month.

The lunar new year is kind of a weird thing for me. In the last couple of years, I have learned more about my Korean heritage, so I know the basics of traditions during the Korean New Year (Seollal)-- I've just never actually put them into play.

What's definitely clear to me is the importance of eating tteok guk for luck in the new year. This suits me perfectly, since tteok guk (Korean rice cake soup) is one of my very favorite Korean foods.

Some Korean recipes call for beef stock (I used my pho broth last January) but I really like to make mine with a mix of kelp, bonito flakes and dashida (Korean beef stock powder).

I forgot to take photos this month when I made tteok guk last week, but there are step by step photos here and here.

Korean Rice Cake Soup - (2 big bowls or 4 appetizer size)
Ingredients:
1 pack bonito flakes (about 2 TBS)
4-6 pieces kelp
2 TBS dashida (Korean beef stock powder)
1/2 to 1 cup sliced beef (marinate in 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 scant TBS each: sesame oil, rice vinegar, sugar)*
2 cups sliced rice cake** (tteok guk tteok -- as opposed to tteok bogi tteok, which are shaped like tubes)
3-4 eggs, beaten
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds, divided
2 sheets kim/nori (seaweed sheets -- the kind for sushi or kimbap), cut into matchstick size strips
2 green onions, sliced thinly

Directions:
- Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add bonito flakes and kelp. Boil 10-15 minutes.
- While broth is boiling, fry bulgogi until rare to medium rare (the meat will continue cooking in the soup).
- Strain the broth to remove the bonito and kelp. Return to stovetop and whisk in dashida.
- Bring the broth back up to a boil and slowly add the rice cake. When the rice cakes float they are done (about 3-6 minutes, longer if they were frozen)
- Use a slotted spoon and remove the tteok (if you do not think you will have leftovers, you may skip this step). Toss the tteok with the sesame oil to keep from sticking.
- Keeping the broth at a boil, slowly pour in the beaten egg. Count to 10 (seriously, all the way to 10) then use a fork or chopstick to make egg ribbons. Cook 1-2 more minutes.
- Split the tteok and beef into bowls, then ladle the broth over. If you did not remove the tteok from the broth, split the sesame oil in each bowl too.
- Garnish the tteok guk with strips of nori, sesame seeds, green onion and lots of freshly cracked pepper.

Notes:
* I often use leftover bulgogi I already have, so the amount varies. But each person should have 1/4 cup of meat at the minimum up to as much as you have (no more than 1 cup... be reasonable!)
** I like a lot of tteok in my tteok guk! You might increase this to 3 cups if you like a lot too.

--
LetsLunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day (or at least we try to... mine is 3 days late this month).

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

Find the other posts on Cheryl's blog or by searching #Letslunch on Twitter.

See you next month for "Thank Goodness It's Spring!" recipes.

"A Tiger in the Kitchen" launch day: family recipes

2011-02-08T08:00:00.002-05:00

Today I'm part of a group who are posting their favorite family recipes to honor our friend Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, who releases her book, A Tiger in the Kitchen, today.

Cheryl put her talents as a cook and a journalist to good use for the book, learning recipes and family stories from her relatives in Singapore. She has asked us to share a family recipe today in that spirit of family and cooking.

My recipe is a simple one, and one I've shared before. My Nan's Irish Soda Bread is still one of my very favorite recipes and it's one that I learned when I was first starting to cook, back in my tiny college kitchen, with a crappy temperamental and bakeware that had seen finer days.

The first time I made Nan's bread was a complete failure -- but it had nothing to do with the quality of my kitchen. No, in my haste to copy the recipe from the e-mail my aunt had sent me, I had written 450 degrees instead of 350.

Miraculously, the bread wasn't too burnt, just hard as a rock. A big "350" is now scrawled across the top of the recipe in my notebook, so I never forget.

Nan's Irish Soda Bread:
4 c white flour
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1/4 stick butter broken into tiny pieces
optional: 1 c soaked raisins (I never use these -- always had to pick them out as a kid)

1 2/3 c buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix the wet ingredients separately with the cream of tartar and baking soda, then add slowly to the flour mixture.

Knead gently and shape into a large round loaf.

Place on an oiled cookie sheet, cut a 4" X on the top, and brush with beaten egg.

Bake 60-70 mins at 350 F. Cool for as long as you bear to wait (I can usually only wait about 10 minutes!).

Serve with butter and enjoy!

---
So, raise a glass to Cheryl's success with the book. ~~I'll try to update the post with other family recipes as I find them.~~ (scroll to end of the post)

Go home and cook a meal with your family tonight. (or stop at your favorite locally owned bookstore and pick up Cheryl's book, like I am)

Call your favorite grandparent, aunt or uncle and ask for a family recipe. Share one of your own with your son, daughter, niece or nephew.

I hope I'm fortunate enough to have an adventure similar to Cheryl's with my Korean birth family some day. In 2007, I learned the basics of Korean cooking from the cook at Ae Ran Won home for unwed birthmothers. The stress of everything else going on with my birth family meant I didn't get the chance to cook with my halmonie and ohmma and learn from them. Hopefully I'll get that chance someday.

Update: here's a running list from Twitter of recipes posted so far:

Kitchen sink pasta

2011-01-17T23:43:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I finally got to see my brother play hockey at his home rink at the Academy, in Colorado Springs. Unluckily, our flight got delayed by four hours coming home. I really needed to go grocery shopping, so by the time I was headed for home, I was hungry and unwilling to cook. Sadly for me, it was about 9 p.m. on a Sunday. Nothing was open (which we learned the hard way... driving from place to place).

So, a quick peek at the pantry staples turned up a few things I was pleasantly surprised to find and threw together to make the following dinner.

When I saw my pasta (I found this in a bag in the back of my cupboard.... my pasta supply dangerously low), I felt like I was living out Adam Robert's recent "Weary Traveler's Spaghetti" post. I dressed the pasta with a little oil and some chili flakes.

With the water from the pasta, I blanched a couple handfuls of spinach:

And defrosted a some frozen shrimp from Trader Joe's:

I also found a half jar of pasta sauce in my fridge. The shrimp and sauce were lucky finds. I probably would have used diced tomatoes out of a can otherwise.

All of that, paired with some leftover Italian pesto bread I found in the freezer made for a perfect late night dinner after a long, and fairly crappy, day.

So, no... this didn't turn out to be an "everything but the kitchen sink" dinner. It's actually something I would probably make again. I tried to throw chop up some zucchini to toss in, but after a long weekend and then some, it was feeling a little squishy and funky. Fresh vegetables are NOT a pantry staple when you haven't grocery shopped in a couple weeks.

#LetsLunch: Healthy recipes for 2011 (January)

2011-01-07T12:08:00.001-05:00

After really falling off the bus and going a little treat crazy following Thanksgiving, I'm definitely ready for some focus in 2011 on my eating and exercising.

Last year was a great start -- I really learned how to lose weight for the first time. When I went to the gym 5 days a week, tracked calories and drank 1 liter+ of water a day, I lost weight. Regularly. In all, I lost 20 lbs last year (net loss, only 14 lbs, after having to re-lose 6 lbs when we moved).

So, I was excited to land on the theme of "healthy recipes for the new year" for this month's #LetsLunch.

#letslunch is a monthly "gathering" of food-loving writers from all over, hosted by Cheryl Tan, of A Tiger In The Kitchen.

We agree on a date and a theme, then each blogger presents his or her recipe on the chosen date (today).

If you are interested in joining, please send a Tweet using the hashtag and introduce yourself!

I made a dish from my friend Thea today. She's been dating my brother for about six years now, and we made this together last month for my mom's birthday.

Thea's Quinoa with Veggies Salad:

I made the quinoa salad yesterday for an office potluck -- at the office. I started the quinoa in the rice cooker, and prepped the veggies while it cooked. This is 2 cups of pre-rinsed quinoa and a quart of low sodium chicken stock.

About 1 teaspoon of salt and powdered garlic (don't judge me.... I was doing this in an office kitchen. Thea used real garlic -- about 2 cloves)

Then let the rice cooker work its magic.

Next, grab your veggies. I used two bright bell peppers and 1 1/2 zucchinis. Thea also uses asparagus, which I'm not a big eater of, so I skipped it here.

If you're cooking at home, dice the veggies and pan fry with the garlic, maybe a little onion until tender.

If you're cooking in an office kitchen, grab the Foreman (yes, we keep a Foreman Grill in our kitchen at work), slice the veggies and grill them.

Toss your grilled and diced veggies with the cooked quinoa, season with some smoked paprika, freshly cracked pepper, fresh chopped parsley and feta cheese. This recipe makes a pretty large bowl-ful!

Check out everyone else's offerings below:

Linda's Mesquite Date Muffins at Free Range Cookies
Steff's Frittata attempt at The Kitchen Trials
Cheryl's Watercress soup at A Tiger In The Kitchen
Mai's Spicy Roasted Cauliflower at Cooking In The Fruit Bowl

Sopes, a first attempt

2011-01-02T13:22:00.000-05:00

I recently picked up a small sack of masa corn flour thinking I would try to expand my cooking horizons a bit. Pupusas maybe, or after seeing a few recipes posted on blogs I frequent, sopes.

So, I consulted Serious Eats, The Kitchn, and Googled for another recipe.

Shaping them turned out to be the most difficult part. The dough was easy enough (although, I suspect it would have benefited from resting a bit)

Little guy on the griddle, getting warm on both sides.

When hand shaping didn't seem to stick, I tried pushing them into muffin tins, or shaping them around little sauce bowls. Mostly this worked, but a few tore and had little holes in them.

The other issues is that I've never actually had a properly constructed sope, so I had little to go on.

But, there they are, after being warmed, shaped and fried on the bottoms. Not too bad for a first attempt...

The final product, black beans, carnitas, a little cheese, cilantro, salsa and avocado.

This was also the first time I had made my own black beans (from dried beans). This took way longer than I expected but they were super delicious with a little tequila and lime mixed in.

I think I will definitely try these again, but if anyone has made these with any success or has tips, please let me know!!!

Sopes dough: I used the recipe on the back of the bag (but about 1:1 masa to water + pinch of salt).

Carnitas: slow cook pork (I actually oven roasted this one, because they were already sliced) with garlic, onions and cumin. Pull apart and chop into small pieces.

Salsa: 1 large can of tomatoes, drained, + garlic, onion, sugar, splash of vinegar, cumin, jalapeno in a food processor. Chill before serving

Black beans: soak beans over night, cook for 1-2 hours in a crock or large sauce pan. Smash about 3/4 of the beans (I used a mortar and pestle), then stir in about 1/3 cup tequila, salt to taste and squeeze 1-2 limes over. Continue cooking until soft.

Holiday gift recipes: a rundown

2010-12-12T13:28:00.000-05:00

I've been a little remiss in my holiday baking this year (partially owing to the fact I'm trying hard not to eat holiday baking this year, and partially owing to the fact I'm about to go to my 5th potluck in 6 weeks)

But, here's a quick look at some of the holiday gift cooking/baking I've done:

First up, and probably most successful in terms of a) money spent, b) time spent and c) ease of process.

Homemade spiced rum: I found a recipe on this on Serious Eats a few weeks ago and immediately decided to make it. About half of the spices, most people will already have in their kitchens. I thought I had almost all of them, but then realized a few more had fallen casualty to the move over the summer.

I started with a 1.75 bottle of Bacardi Gold and used the following: cloves (whole), all spice (whole), nutmeg (ground), star anise (whole), black peppercorns (whole), cinnamon sticks (I broke mine in half), vanilla bean (1 - split down the middle, seeds scraped), ginger (two 1-inch sized pieces, peeled) and the orange peels from half an orange (remove the pith really well with a paring knife).

When I measured out as the Serious Eats recipe called for, however, I thought it looked pretty pathetic, so amped up to about 1 teaspoon of each spice. After tasting the second day, I removed about half of the orange slices. They had given off a sweet, fragrant taste quickly, and I didn't want it to overpower the rum.

The whole project, after straining, made about 4 of these pint-sized flasks. I loved really cute glass ones on Crate and Barrel, went to Ikea to search for similar ones, and ended up finding these at the Rainbow Foods liquor store (they're "unbreakable" plastic), so I attempted to cheer them up with a fabric wrapping.

Next up, a recipe I found on The Kitchn blog: hot cocoa on a stick. I thought, oh fun! how cute! I bet those will be a snap!

This is basically 8 oz of tempered chocolate, mixed with powdered sugar and more cocoa powder to make it fudge-like. You pipe into molds (I spooned mine in since I only had 6 molds to fill), stick a stick in it, and let them harden.

Sounds, oh-so-easy.

I took a few liberties with the instructions, such as using candy canes for the sticks (it's a blizzard, people... you do not run to the store in 17 inches of snow for coffee stir sticks) and using these cute snow-men molds that I picked up instead of standard size ice cube trays.

The chocolate only made enough to fill these six molds, then the chocolate wasn't firm enough to hold up the weight of the candy canes.

Then when I went to pop them out, I accidentally broke two canes!

So, in all, not the favorite in terms of ease or gifts produced. But, the four little snowmen that DID survive are going to be a cute hostess gift for a friend.

Last, but not least, this is a repeat from holiday 2009: Brady's Christmas Caramels.

These are far less nerve wracking to make the second time around. Melt 2 stick of butter, add 2 1/2 cups brown sugar and a pinch of salt, stir in a cup of light corn syrup then a can of sweetened condensed milk, and keep the pot moving.

The caramel cooks for between 15 and 20 minutes, and needs to be stirred constantly. If you have a reliable candy thermometer (that you have used before with good results), clip it to the side of your pan and aim for about 240 F -- soft ball stage.

If your candy thermometer sucks (like mine) use it as a rough estimate, and start cold-water testing the candy at about 220 F. Take a fork, swirl a few drops of the caramel into cold water. The caramel is done when it holds it's form (a soft ball) when you retrieve it from the water.

Be careful though, because the caramel will continue to heat a little, even after you turn off the heat, so don't let it go past "hard ball" stage -- or it will be tough to cut up your candy (see last year's post on hard caramel)

Instead of using a buttered pan, I took a big sheet of parchment (bigger than the 9x9 pan) and laid it over the pan with a little oil spray. Pour the candy onto the paper and spread into the pan. This makes it incredibly easy to remove the caramels later (just lift the paper). Cut into 1 inch pieces and wrap with parchment.

This requires a little more work than the rum but a 9x9 inch pan makes a TON of caramels and they are a really fun treat. This remains one of my favorite holiday recipes!! Thank you SO much for sharing it, Brady!!

#LetsLunch: Holiday side dishes edition (December)

2010-12-10T17:55:00.002-05:00

**updated! final bread photos
-----
I almost didn't make it to #letslunch this month.

On Wednesday, I was 100% blindsided by this:

First I panicked and wished I had just saved my Thanksgiving post on gougeres. Then I thought maybe I would just sit this round out. But driving home last night, I decided on a happy middle ground: Dave's peasant bread (Dave is Jake's dad and also an awesome cook). He made this bread for Thanksgiving and It. Is. Awesome.

So, here's the "cheat" -- my bread isn't done yet. In order to develop jaw-dropping-mmm-inducing flavor, this baby sits and sits and sits (first in the fridge, then just room temp) for 12 hours, then 18 hours. We're at about hour 7 of the second rise as I write...

So, the bread starts with a little yeast (I used about 1/2 packet), 1 cup wheat flour, 2 cups white/bread flour, and a pinch of salt. This is essentially a no-knead, long rise bread, so I just started all of my ingredients in my new red-and-polka-dot dutch oven.

Mix in some water - about 2 cups. You want a wet, shaggy dough to form.

Mix together well until all of the flour mixture is absorbed.

Put a lid on it, stick it in the fridge for 12 hours. (see, I told you my baker was cute! It might not be a "real" Dutch oven... but it was $20 at Home Goods)

This morning, I took a quick peek at my dough, then left it out on the counter to rise. I'm so excited to bake it tomorrow!

***Updated: here's the final product:

I couldn't wait to taste it!

Recipe: Daves Peasant Bread
(it turns out I tweaked this a bit / looked at the measurements wrong last night -- the ingredients call for 2 1/2 cups bread/white flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour... my bad)
* Combine ingredients in a large bowl, add water and cover with plastic. Refrigerate up to 12 hours. If you're in a rush, you can skip this step.
* Let dough rise 18 hours in a warmish/room temp place. Then sprinkle work surface with flour, and fold dough over itself to form a square or ball shape.
* Line a baking sheet with parchment and dust with flour. Place dough and cover with a kitchen towel. Allow to rise 2-3 more hours.
* Preheat a dutch oven (w/o the lid) for 30 minutes at 450 degrees. Transfer the dough to the pot, bake 30 minutes covered, then 15-30 minutes uncovered. Turn out and cool.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#letslunch is a monthly "gathering" of food-loving writers from all over, hosted by Cheryl Tan, of A Tiger In The Kitchen.

We agree on a date and a theme, then each blogger presents his or her recipe on the chosen date (today).

If you are interested in joining, please send a Tweet using the hashtag and introduce yourself!

Here's what the others have presented so far:

Leek Gratin, at Bon Vivant
Kimchi Risotto Bake, at Cooking in the Fruit Bowl
A "slice of Americana," at GeoFooding
Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole, at Free Range Cookies
Parker House Rolls with Molasses Butter, at The Kitchen Trials
Mushroom Leek Quinoa Salad, at Cowgirl Chef
Festive Green Beans, at Hot Curries and Cold Beer

Thanksgiving 2010: Pecan Pie

2010-12-07T23:29:00.000-05:00

My second offering for Thanksgiving was a pecan pie. I decided to pair Pioneer Woman's pie filling with a pie dough using Michael Ruhlman's Ratio app.

I decided to use half butter and half shortening for my pie crust after reading this tutorial on Epicurious.

Thanks, Chao for picking up the shortening for me!

Took some smart advice from blogs and retail reporters to stock up on baking essentials the week before Thanksgiving. Prices on ingredients like nuts and butter were way lower than normal.

Pie crust is another great use for the food processor. Fit the bowl with the dough blade and pulse the butter and fat together until crumbly. Then, add ice water bit by bit until a sticky dough forms.

My dough went into the refrigerator over night, then I rolled it out between two pieces of wax paper (harder than it sounds, actually).

Roll the crust over the wax paper, then lay into a pie dish. Trim the edges and cover until ready to fill.

(pretty good for my first real pie crust, huh?)

And again, we were a little pressed for time, so I just whipped up PW's pie filling in a tupperware and brought it with us. We baked the pie at Jake's while we were eating dinner.

It's entirely true that I should not have brought a pie to someone else's thanksgiving that I had never made before in my life. It's also entirely true that I should have listened to PW's note at the bottom of the recipe, where she clearly warns that the bake time for this pie is unpredictable:

"Required baking time seems to vary widely with this recipe. Sometimes it takes 50 minutes; sometimes it takes 75!"

And, indeed, the pie took about 75 minutes. It was soft and beautiful and had a really nice flavor.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving, everyone.

Thanksgiving 2010: gougeres

2010-12-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

We spent our Thanksgiving this year with Jake's family, and I volunteered to add a pie and a roll to the mix.

Well, as previously mentioned, the seollangtang took up much more of my morning than expected, so I quickly realized I wasn't going to have time to let a yeast roll rise, so I switched gears for cheese gougeres.

I inherited a nice chunk of fancy Gruyere from a friend and tossed it through the food processor.

I folded this cheese into a big batch (double what I normally make, I think) of pate a choux.

Choux paste is painfully easy to make and so versatile. Melt butter and water together, then dump in flour and beat in a pot over medium heat until steam is mostly gone.

Beat the dough on medium to high speed to release heat, then beat eggs one by one. For this double batch I think I added 8 eggs total. Dough will be sticky and shiny. You can also use a hand mixer for this.

I also added about 1 TBS of bouquet garni herbs to the dough with the cheese, then piped the gougeres onto parchment lined baking sheets with a star tip.

Bake the gougeres at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes until they are puffed up and slightly golden. Rotate the pans and switch racks, then lower the heat to 350 (325 if the bottoms seem burnt) another 10-20 minutes. To test, break open a gougere. The inside should be mostly dry.

Cool the gougeres and serve warm or reheated in the oven at 200.

Homemade kimchi

2010-12-07T22:41:00.002-05:00

10 lbs of baechu -- no kimchi shortage here! I paid less than $1 per pound for these.

This weekend I believe I earned my true Korean stripes, or badge or whatever.

After weeks of studying Maangchi's mak kimchi recipe, I decided to take the plunge, channel my inner ajumma and make some kimchi.

The entire process probably took me about 2.5 hours of active work.

It might have been quicker with a second set of hands, but my understanding of kimchi is that the most time consuming part is stuffing the paste between individual leaves of the cabbage -- which this recipe avoids by starting with chopped cabbage.

I took some photos along the way. Mostly I stuck to Maangchi's recipe and instructions.

A few kimchi making tips I picked up making this recipe:
* Invest in at least one big plastic kimchi bowl. I paid $5 for mine at the Korean market, but I have also seen them at the larger Asian market in my neighborhood. I would have liked a second bowl this size to make the kimchi paste
* Get a big airtight kimchi box. I bought mine when we still lived in DC and wish I had a second one. Mine wasn't quite big enough to house all of my kimchi.
* Your life will be much easier if you use a food processor with the shredding disc on the radish and carrots.
* Wear plastic gloves when mixing the kimchi -- but keep one hand clean, to handle the kimchi box and tools.
* My kimchi was also a little heavy on garlic and ginger. I would use a little less next time around
* I also skipped Maangchi's suggested squid and/or clams. A friend told me his parents use tiny dried shrimp, and I meant to toss in a handful. Next time, for sure...

**Sidebar: I'm not usually one to bash on other food blogs, but this morning I came across a post being promoted as "spicy holiday gifts" and it included a recipe for homemade kimchi that called for applesauce and sriracha sauce but no seafood agent (raw seafood, fish sauce, etc) and no gochugaru. Please, people, if you run into this recipe, run the other way. Stick with an authentic process, like Maangchi's. It's the right thing to do!

Seollangtang: Korean oxbone soup (an imperfect, but tasty first attempt)

2010-11-26T16:09:00.000-05:00

In August, my friend Patrick took me on a food tour of Koreatown in L.A. I first met Patrick in 2008 during our summer internship at the Star Tribune. Patrick is a "real" Korean compared to me, and helped me out when I decided to attempt to make mulnaengmyun the first time. (I got the package home only to find I couldn't read ANY of the instructions)

Korean restaurants are usually based around 1 dish: ramen restaurant, kimbap restaurant, bossam restaurant, etc. In America, we're big proponents of having a spectrum of food on the menu.

Our journey in L.A. began with seollangtang, or Korean oxbone soup. I was immediately taken with how thick and meaty the broth was, and overall, how delicious the concoction was.

I checked on my go-to source for Korean recipes, Maangchi but at the time, she didn't have a recipe posted! (there were, however, three or four postings in her "recipe requests" forum begging for a recipe and video)

Then last week, Maangchi heard our cries, and posted her recipe, photos and video of seollangtang. I had yesterday off for Thanksgiving, so I decided to give it a try, starting Wednesday and continuing on Thursday.

The basic premise of seollangtang is you boil ox leg or ox tail bones for a long period of time to extract the marrow and calcium, turning the broth a milky white color.

So, I soaked the bones, par boiled them to remove dirt and scum, rinsed them, and then threw them on to hard boil for three hours.

Yeah, that clock says 12:12. I started this process at 6 p.m. on Wednesday night. And yes, the broth DOES look painfully brown and beefy.

I pulled the meat from the bones, replaced them in the pot, and called it a night.

So, I left the pot out on the porch overnight (no room in the fridge!), poked around online for answers about why my soup wasn't turning white.

Bright and early thanksgiving morning I ran back to the market where I purchased two more packages of oxtails and one package of beef feet (something I had read or watched online referenced beef feet, so I figured I'd give it a try).

I had to go through the soaking, washing, boiling, rinsing song-and-dance once again, then started my pot up again. Then we had to go to Thanksgiving dinner, and when we returned, I lit the burners once again.

Luckily, the broth started to lighten (as evidenced here, at 9:42 p.m. on Thursday).

At this point, the broth had boiled for 6 hours on Wednesday night, two hours on Thursday morning, and about one hour on Thursday night. I let it go another hour or so, then finally decided to to taste the soup and see where it was at.

It wasn't perfectly milk-white, but it was tasty and meaty. So, once again, I called it a night. I brought it for lunch today (the first photo) and it was pretty darn good.

I might throw the pots back on the stove for another couple hours tonight, but for now, I recognize it was an imperfect first attempt, but the results were still tasty.

Wendy's easy hoisin ribs

2010-11-25T01:52:00.001-05:00

I love ribs.

No, seriously. I really, really love ribs.When I was a kid, my family used to celebrate my plane day (the day I was adopted) and my dad's birthday together by going out for ribs. And to this day, I can't resist a good plate of ribs.

I first attempted to make ribs in June of this year. You'll recall I foolishly slow cooked them IN THE OVEN in a small apartment, no AC on, on a nice 80 degree day in Washington.

Well, I now live in a home where the heat doesn't run in the kitchen, and it's about 18 degrees when I get home at night. Bring on the ribs.

This recipe comes from my friend Wendy, whom you first met during the dimsum party I hosted this fall. She made these awesome, sweet and sticky ribs for a party last weekend. When I saw ribs on sale at Shuang Her on Monday, I knew I had to make them.

Wendy suggests marinating the ribs overnight, but I just couldn't wait. My ribs sat for about an hour, then I popped them in the oven. I would imagine they would have been more tender had I been patient.

RECIPE: Wendy's easy hoisin ribs

Place ribs in a baking pan and slather with hoisin sauce (about 1/2-3/4 cups for 2 racks of ribs). I had to stack mine a little

Season with salt and pepper (I omitted the salt, since the hoisin is really salty)

Cover with foil and allow to sit at least one hour, but up to one day if you can stand the wait!

Bake at 400 degrees for one hour. At the end, I removed the foil, basted the ribs again, and popped them back in at 450 for about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with chopped scallion and toasted sesame seeds if you like.

Potluck success! Korean glass noodle salad (japchae)

2010-11-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

A friend hosted an office potluck and karaoke party last night and I was torn between making sesame noodles or Korean japchae. After I saw Maangchi's recipe and post on her blog though, I decided to go with the latter.

The heart and soul of japchae comes from the noodle. Japchae noodles are made from sweet potato starch and are thick and chewy. They have an awesome consistency when cooked right that allows them to be eaten hot or cold with the same enjoyment. I used two bundles of noodles since I was cooking for a large group. Otherwise, 1 bunch would probably do. When the noodles are done cooking (~5 minutes), remove them with tongs, and do not drain the water. Repeat: DO NOT drain the water. Rinse your noodles in cool water to stop the cooking, then toss with 2-3 tablespoons of sesame oil.

Why? because you need to blanch the spinach, and the time you would take to boil another pot of water is a huge waste. So. Do the right thing and use the water twice. Blanch 2 bunches of spinach (washed, stems roughly chopped off) for about 30 seconds, then rinse to cool. I only used 2 bunches, and had to add a bag of frozen "Steam Fresh!" so, if you were making a regular sized batch, I would still go for 2 big bunches. Set the spinach aside. You can mix with 2 TBS soy sauce and some fresh or powdered garlic at this point.

Now, get that chopping arm ready. Chop 4 carrots, 2 bell peppers, 2 bunches of spring onions (somehow I didn't get a picture of those) and 1 large onion into match-stick size pieces (thin slices for the onion). If you're making a small batch, just half those portions. Fry each in about 1 TBS oil for ~2-3 minutes (~ 4-5 for the onion) then pour into the noodles.

The last step, slice up some shitake mushrooms (I used fresh, but you'd be fine to use dried -- just let them steep in hot water for 15-30 minutes until soft) and some beef. Use any cut you like. You want equal proportions of beef to mushrooms, and make them about the same size- 1-inch or smaller strips. Fry them together (you don't need any oil, the mushrooms release a ton of liquid) with 2 TBS soy sauce, 1 TBS sugar and 1 TBS rice vinegar or rice wine. Drain the liquid, the add to the noodles.

Lastly, season your entire bowl with about 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup sesame oil, 1/4 cup sugar and a small handful of toasted sesame seeds. Mix with your hands to incorporate all of the ingredients.

Serve warm or cold with rice and banchan.

Shopping list (for a regular sized batch - serves 6-8)
Korean sweet potato noodles (1 bunch)
Spinach (2 bunches)
Carrots, 2 (if you get the asian-style carrots - they're huge - you probably only need 1)
Red bell pepper, 1 (if you're going to leave out anything, this would be the 1 optional ingredient)
Green onions, 1 bunch
White or yellow onion, 1 small to medium size
Shitake mushrooms, about 6-8(I probably used 10 or 12 for the big batch)
Beef, thinly sliced (the cut I bought at the Asian grocery was called "beef-regular" and cost $2.49 a lb)
Soy sauce
sesame oil
sugar
toasted sesame seeds

Korean barbecue ribs (Kalbi)

2010-11-17T18:39:00.001-05:00

One of the biggest challenges I've had since I've moved back to Minnesota is finding the perfect cut of beef for bulgogi. In Washington, I shopped at HMart, a Korean grocery store. Finding beef for bulgogi was easy -- it was presliced, and you could buy some that had been marinated by the ajummas in the store.

Here? It's another story. Most of the beef I've gotten for what I consider to be a reasonable price, then sliced myself, has a) been sliced too thick and b) ended up kind of tough.

What is readily available in the Asian markets nearby, however, are short ribs -- the meat used to make Korean kalbi.

I cut the slabs into individual sized pieces, then marinated them over night with a sliced onion and a ton of garlic. Then, into the grill pan they went.

I was thrilled with the way these turned out. The meat was juicy and charred from the grill pan. I served the galbi with the fried onions and enoki mushrooms.

And Korean food isn't complete without kimchi, but I didn't have any on-hand, so I threw together a sort of quick "faux" kimchi -- mixing together homemade quick pickles, daikon radish, spring oninos, some rice vinegar and gochuchang. Super tasty.

RECIPE: Kalbi
1 lb short ribs, cut into individual pieces
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup sesame oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
8-10 cloves garlic, smashed or sliced
1 bunch scallions, chopped (dark green parts only)

Whisk together liquids and pour over kalbi in a large plastic bag. Mix in onion, garlic and scallions. Marinate at least 2 hours, up to 24.

Heat a grill pan over high heat, then reduce to medium. Grill ribs 2-3 minutes on each side or until cooked through.

Grill 1 bunch enoki mushrooms per person and toss with onions. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

RECIPE: quick "faux" kimchi
3 pickling cucumbers, cut into half inch pieces (the short, fat ones. But you could also use the long skinny seedless japanese ones)
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp rice vinegar
Equal amount of pickled daikon radish (called dan-muji), about 1 round piece, 5 inches long, also cut into half inch pieces
1-2 TBS gochuchang
white and light green parts from the scallions used in kalbi marinade

Mix the sugar, salt and rice vinegar and pour over the cucumbers. Allow to "pickle" for at least 15 minutes, up to a few hours. Drain, then taste after 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning if necessary. (If they're too salty, give 'em a quick rinse)

Mix pickles with daikon and stir in gochuchang. Sprinkle with scallions and toasted sesame seeds.

Serve with other banchan (Korean side dishes) and barbeque.

Let's Lunch! Fall soups edition

2010-11-12T11:23:00.001-05:00

Happy Let's Lunch day, gang! I was very excited when we chose fall soups for our November theme -- not because I'm a great soup maker, but because I was dying to see what everyone else was going to make.

I went simple: roasted tomato soup. I didn't really follow a particular recipe, just combined steps I liked or sounded good from a couple of sources.

The result was awesome. Jake and I have both been eating a lot of tomato soup lately -- and this was a great way to bring down the salt levels, and make a more delicious (and really, just as easy) option.

So, I started by roasting a bunch of tomatoes. I did it in 2 batches, about three large cans of diced tomatoes on each. I rinsed the tomatoes to get rid of any residual "can" taste and excess liquid, then seasoned with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. About halfway through, I added a handful of crushed garlic cloves (about 8 or 10, I think) and some thinly sliced onion (maybe one small onion).

While the tomatoes were roasting, I made homemade stock. I always hang on to "odds and ends" when I'm cooking so that I can toss them in and make a richer stock. That all paid off with this batch -- the stock was silky and full bodied. It tasted amazing.

Veggies! Leeks, celery, onion, carrots then topped with a chicken carcass, bay leaves and water. I simmered the stock while the tomatoes were roasting (about 1 hour at 450, tossing about halfway through to carmelize more of the surface)

Tomatoes, cooling on the back porch.

Stock, also cooling. I skimmed off some of that fat from the top after it had cooled.

Once both the tomatoes and stock were cooled, I mixed them in about equal portions in the food processor (yes, it would have been easier with a hand blender... but I'm still on the fence about whether or not I need one of those)

Once all of the soup had been pureed, I tossed in some soup seasoning I picked up at Penzeys (it is DANGEROUS for me to live down the street from this store...) and sprinkled some chiffonade basil, then heated through.

---------
#letslunch is a monthly "gathering" of food-loving writers from all over, hosted by Cheryl Tan, of A Tiger In The Kitchen.

We agree on a date and a theme, then each blogger presents his or her recipe on the chosen date (today).

Cheryl's Cantonese style Winter-Melon Soup
Linda's gluten-free Oven Baked Soup
Ellise's French pumpkin Potimarron Soup
Steff's Carrot Habanero Soup
Danielle's Carrot Soup with Chicharonnes
And, a big hug and welcome to fellow AAJA-er Mai's Apple Beer Cheese Soup

*updated: I'd like to join the toasts raised by others (in their posts and on Twitter) to Cheryl, for starting the group, and to the entire group for continuing to make it such a rich and tasty experience. Cheers, everyone.

Breakfast!

2010-11-11T09:45:00.000-05:00

Now, normally, I'm not a big breakfast person. But lately, I've taken a liking to toast and eggs.

I jazzed these up this morning and was so incredibly pleased with a) how easy it was and b) (and more importantly) how delicious it was.

Super simple, can hardly even call it a recipe:

2 slices of bread or halves of english muffin. It would also be tasty on a biscuit or bagel.

2 eggs

about 1/3 c shredded cheese (I had smoked gouda and it rocked)

about 1/3 c baby spinach leaves

Put two slices of bread or halves of English muffin in the toaster (or an oven set to 250)

Fry two eggs over easy. I like to leave the yolks a little runny, but cook to your liking. Season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Season *both* sides of the eggs!

Split the spinach and the cheese and arrange on top of the toast.

Plop an egg on each toast (quickly! you need the residual heat from the egg to melt the cheese in a hurry)

Enjoy your breakfasty goodness.

And, paired with a big pot of coffee and some nice fruit, this would probably make a great brunch for 2.

Chonsa dance reunion: making mandu

2010-10-16T21:26:00.001-04:00

We all have food memories. For me, mandu (Korean dumplings) is one of those foods that that brings up a flood of strong, vivid memories:

* Sitting in the cafeteria at Minnehaha Academy for Korean Culture Camp in third grade tasting the crunchy, savory dumplings for the first time.

* Staying late after Korean school on the days when the ajummas came to the church and cooked Korean food.

* 7th grade, in a friend's kitchen trying to fold the triangle dumplings for the first time.

Korean cooking has long been a social activity for me -- I learned how to cook Korean with my friends from my dance group.

Four of us met up this weekend at my place and mandu seemed like the perfect option -- we hadn't made it together in years.

Everyone's mandu filling is a little different. I made this one after referring to a few recipes online. This was a great chance to use my stand mixer to make blend the beef with the tofu. We made a double batch, so I had to make the filling in batches.

Mandu can be steamed or fried. We steamed some of them, but they kept sticking to the parchment and falling apart, so stuck with frying them in the wok.

Lunch! We stopped midway and munched on the mandu with big steamy bowls of tteok guk -- perfect for a chilly fall day.

In all, my friends made about 200 dumplings today! They each took home bags full, I'm bringing some to a Halloween party tonight, and a bag or so went into the freezer.

RECIPE: Mandu filling
(Makes about 100 dumplings)

1 package ground beef
1 package medium firm tofu, drained and squeezed of liquids
3-5 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 TBS garlic powder)
1 inch piece ginger, minced ((or 1 TBS ginger powder)
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp sugar
1/2 small cabbage, shredded finely
1 onion, diced finely
1 bunch scallions, diced
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c sesame oil
1/4 c rice wine

Push cabbage and onions through a food processor fitted with a shredding disc. Set aside

Combine meat and tofu until well blended. I used a stand mixer for this. Add garlic, ginger, sugar, and pepper.

Stir in shredded vegetables until fully combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together liquids and pour over meat to season.

Drop rounded teaspoons into wonton wrappers.

Brush edges with beaten egg and press firmly to seal.

Fry on both sides until golden brown, or steam 8-10 minutes until meat is cooked through.

**Update: my house smells like fried mandu, all the way out to the front hallway. Some people might find this kind of disgusting, but it's a huge comfort to me for two reasons: a) the nostalgic reasons referenced above and b) it smells *exactly* like the Korean church used to on mandu day. This tells me my recipe and methods are relatively close to the real deal!

Let's lunch! Grilled Cheese edition

2010-10-15T13:10:00.005-04:00

So last week I received a bit of a shock when the aforementioned Cheryl Tan tweeted me the following:

@emmacarew No problem! Love your blog. Say, wld you like to join my #letslunch group? We post lunch once a mth. Doing grilled cheese this wkless than a minute ago via webCheryl Tan
cheryltan88

I had seen her #letslunch tweets previously -- she and a group of farflung lunch enthusiasts all make the same thing for lunch then blog about it. And she invited ME to join this illustrious group.

So, here we are, Friday the 15th and I was not only thrilled to join, but couldn't be happier to start with one of my very favorite sandwiches: grilled cheese.

I don't normally like to mess with the classics, so this was a fairly straight forward take on grilled cheese.

I used 9-grain bread from Great Harvest -- left over from my trip to Des Moines. Smoked gouda and provolone cheeses, and finished with a brush of truffle oil -- a little tip I've been a fan over ever since the pilot episode of Gossip Girl.

Were I to do this again, I would have taken the time to shred the gouda. It took a long time to melt in these little slices.

I always start the bread in melted butter (both sides). Brushing with truffle oil gives it a nice nutty, dark flavor, and also some nice extra crunch.

Ok, guilty admission time:I planned a potluck at work today, so this was actually my breakfast this morning. BUT -- I maintain it was probably lunchtime *somewhere* out there.

I can't wait to see what the others post for their #letslunch. I'll update with links out to them as I find them.

**updated:
Cheryl Tan, in New York: Cheddar and blue cheese with Asian pears and rosemary honey
Linda, in St Louis: oven baked grilled cheese
Chris Perrin, I think in Kansas: 2 options, grilled cheese with black forest ham and pickles AND buffalo chicken grilled cheese
Cathy Shambley, in California: breadless grilled halloumi with bacon and apples
Danielle, in the Bay Area: open face "mousetrap" sandwiches
Ellise Pierce, in France: grilled brie, pear and prosciutto

Chocolate cake

2010-10-15T10:29:00.000-04:00

My friend Karyn is getting married next summer, and in addition to being a bridesmaid, I also jumped at the opportunity to supply the cake.

On a recent trip down to visit her, we took our first stab at trying to figure out what she wants. We made Ina Garten's chocolate cake, chocolate butter cream and a peanut butter mousse to fill it.

Today I put together my second attempt for a colleague's birthday in the office. I tried a simple raspberry creme for the filling and a fudgy frosting I found at Serious Eats.

The filling is so simple: make a raspberry puree, and fold it gently into some whipped cream, then chill.

The icing, I definitely won't be using again. It was so sticky and thick and hard to spread on the cake. It was especially a challenge with the raspberry filling.

Mostly, I ended up icing the top cake and letting the rest sort of swirl down the sides. Let's call it an artistic effect.

I love the raspberry creme as a filling. And I think it will be awesome to go as a cupcake filler too!

Dim Sum swap party

2010-10-10T14:30:00.000-04:00

This weekend I hosted three friends for a dim sum swap party. Each of us brought a different dim sum recipe, we helped each other fill and steam the dumplings, then ate a bunch, and swapped.

It was a great way to spend the day cooking with friends, and we each got to take home bags filled with dumplings to be frozen.

I took a first run at using Andrea Nguyen's basic dumpling dough, and used some tips from her website. I've been hesitant to use boiling water dough in the past (it's so hot!) but Andrea gives tips for making it in the food processor, which allows some of the heat to escape before you have to handle it.

The filling I chose is a recipe adapted from a high school friend Ali. Pork and leek are fairly common dumplings, I think. I swapped in a pound of turkey to try and make them a little healthier.

The party was a huge success - we had egg tarts, the pork dumplings, veggie dumplings and shrimp siu mai. I also made a quick version of the Momofuku steamed pork buns (which I've made before using David Chang's original recipe).

Thanks to a post by Cheryl Tan, a food writer/blogger and AAJA member whom I greatly admire, about making her mother's kong bak pau I learned about the existence of frozen steam buns sold at Asian grocery stores. I found them at Shuang Her on University Av. at $2.45 for a dozen.

Next month, we're hoping to tackle tapas and small plates for our group cooking. :)

dreaming? of my happily full freezer with bags of homemade dumplings

RECIPE: Pork dumpling filling (adapted from Ali & Matt)
2-3 lbs ground pork (I substituted 1 lb ground turkey in this recipe)
1 two-inch piece of ginger, minced (about 2-3 TBS)
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (about 2-3 TBS)
2 small leeks (or 1 large one), minced
2 bunches green onions, the darkest green parts, chopped thinly
salt, pepper 1 tsp each
1 TBS sugar
3 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS sesame oil

Mix meats together with chopped ingredients. In a small bowl, combine the seasonings and liquid ingredients.

Pour seasoning over the meat and combine thoroughly. Allow to marinate at least 1 hour, then use to fill dumplings.

Steam or fry until cooked through.

Dinner party!

2010-08-21T18:01:00.000-04:00

We hosted our friend Alex for dinner last night, and I adapted this week's Minimalist column for the main course.

Bittman's recipe intends to keep chicken moist while grilling it. I did mine in a skillet on the stove, and they weren't rolled nearly as neatly as Bittman's.

Still, they were tasty and super moist. I used more of a bulgogi (or, I suppose dak-kogi, chicken bulgogi) marinade than following Bittman's recipe. Equal parts sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, plus a little squirt of sriracha rooster sauce.

I thought the chicken was maybe a bit too salty, but obviously, the boys disagreed.

A sign of a successful meal:

Farmer's Market dinner

2010-08-21T17:41:00.017-04:00

Wednesday I passed a farmers' market on my way home from an interview.

The sweet corn was really calling out to me, I stopped and picked up corn, radishes, bell peppers and new potatoes. Except for the potatoes, it all went toward a nice fresh, minimalist-style dinner.

Together it made a really nice spread, paired with fresh strawberries for dessert.

I made a compound butter with tarragon and basil from my herb plants, then piled the cucumbers from Jake's dad with radish slices on little multigrain rolls. Nice veggie sandwich!

The bell peppers were HUGE and nice thick pieces. They tasted awesome with the end of my homemade hummus.

Recreating Nicola's

2010-08-17T21:10:00.001-04:00

This has quickly become one of our favorite dinners to throw together.

Our new place doesn't have AC so on the really hot days, we'll just put together an anti-pasto/tapas type meal and snack on that for dinner. I used the lunch special from Nicola's (my fave lunch spot at my old DC office) as inspiration on the roasted eggplant and zucchini. You can't see it, but there's also a salad off to the side.

Aside from that, we slice up some baguette, cheeses and salami and pepperoni. Nicola's usually had lovely swiss and Brie and fresh mozzarella with Serrano ham and prosciutto, but hey -- we didn't win the lottery when we moved here!

Up front, is my homemade hummus and some baba ghanoush (roasted eggplant dip). Is it superfluous to eat roasted egg plant with roasted eggplant dip? Probably.... but it tastes great!

Kitchenaid has arrived!

2010-08-15T01:29:00.003-04:00

My life is complete. I officially own a stand mixer!! I hadn't expected to be investing in something this large so soon, but I had $40 in Amazon gift cards, it was on sale AND Kitchenaid is currently running a rebate promotion. It seemed too good of a deal to pass up.

Sadly, it's been HOT in St Paul this week, so I haven't gotten to use it yet!

It finally cooled off a little tonight, and I used some tomatoes from Jake's dad to make a great marinara sauce.

I also popped a batch of cheese and herb biscuits into the oven. They weren't a stand mixer project, but they are pretty damn tasty!

Generally, I followed the Amateur Gourmet recipe I've used in the past except for a few steps:
* I found I needed closer to 3 cups of flour. 2 cups gave me more of a thick pancake like batter.
* I added 1/3 c shredded gouda to the dough just before the buttermilk.
* Sprinkled the tops with chopped thyme and oregano from Jake's dad's garden. Also about 1 tsp kosher salt
* After the initial 5 min bake, I took them out, brushed them again with a little butter and sprinkled a little more gouda.

Weekend grilling

2010-08-02T00:29:00.000-04:00

This weekend we took out the grill for the first time. It also marked the first weekend for great Minnesota sweet corn.

There were a bunch of posts on grilled corn last week, namely America's Test Kitchen and Mark Bittman's Minimalist column.

It was also just a good excuse for me to play around in the kitchen.

For instance, I made hummus. Tons of homemade hummus, with roasted garlic.

I also made baba ghanouj (top large bowl), also with roasted garlic, then made sriracha chili butter to go with the corn.

The grilled flatbread experiment probably could have gone better, but the parts that didn't char turned out awesome.

We still ate most of this anyway.

Midway through, the handle on the grill broke off, so we put Keith in charge of being the human grill handle.

Beautiful, sweet, smoky charred grilled corn. This was absolutely amazing.

There was also a big bowl of oven roasted egg plant and zucchini (the latter from Jake's dad's garden).

Today (Sunday) we had some friends over and I put together a fantastic spring roll bar, but failed to take any photographs of it.

Needless to say, the big pot of miso soup was beautiful, the glass noodles dressed with lime chili sauce were phenomenal, and the pile of shrimp with the three homemade sauces were all delightful.

In all, a pretty good weekend. Now I'm off to bake some buttermilk biscuits to bring to the bureau tomorrow.

New baby herb garden!

2010-07-24T19:24:00.000-04:00

One of the most exciting things about our new place is the space I have to grow herbs! It's a bit late in the season, so my options were a little limited when I went to the nursery but I managed to get my hands on a beautiful tarragon plant and two rosemary plants (I killed my last round of rosemary, so hopefully this one goes better). I also bought two "live basil" plants at the grocery store and planted them together.

So far, they look healthy and are getting lots of sun. Anyone have tips for keeping tarragon and rosemary alive? I'm hoping to bring them all inside this fall and keep them alive under lamps - which I was able to do with my chives, basil and parsley in my last college apartment.

Can't wait to start cooking with these little guys!

First cooking in Minnesota

2010-07-24T19:19:00.001-04:00

I cheated a little for this meal. Jake and I "borrowed" his parents' kitchen last weekend while we were waiting for our things to be delivered. Rainbow had a special on the "grill pack" of Italian sausages, so I had planned to make meat sauce.

While the meat sauce was simmering, I also decided to try my hand at foccacia bread. I didn't have an exact recipe to go off, but it turned out pretty well.

We didn't end up eating the sauce for a few days, so the flavors had extra time to soak together.

Italian sausage meat sauce (makes 2 batches)
2 28 oz cans diced tomatoes
8-12 Italian sausages, cut into 1 inch and 1/2 inch pieces
1 onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or minced
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 c olive oil
1/3 c red wine
2 pinches of sugar
1/2 tsp-1 tsp red chili flakes
salt and pepper, to taste
6-10 leaves fresh basil (chiffonade)

In a large skilled with high walls, brown sausage pieces with the olive oil. If you like a mix of spicy and sweet, toss half the pieces with 1 tsp red chili flakes and half with 2 tsp brown sugar before browning.

When sausages have browned, add onion and saute for 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and wine, and mix with browned bits in the pan. Saute another 2 minutes until wine reduces by half.

Add the red chili flakes, sugar and salt and pepper, then 2 cans of tomatoes. Increase heat and cook the tomatoes down, 5-10 minutes.

Stir in the tomato sauce, until thoroughly combined. Lower heat to a simmer, then cover for at least 30 minutes, up to 4 hours. (you can also transfer to a crock pot at this stage)

Sprinkle in the basil or parsley in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

Goodbye DC cupcakes

2010-07-24T19:06:00.000-04:00

So we're finally moved into our new place and more or less settled in St. Paul.

I meant to post these before we moved, but never had the chance. The Monday of Fourth of July weekend, instead of packing up my belongings, I spent the day baking EIGHT dozen cupcakes - red velvet and mocha walnut.

Luckily, I was able to drive to work, stacking these babies inside the cupcake holder. My co-workers managed to polish off the majority of them before the day was out.

Pull-apart Herb and Cheddar Bread

2010-06-26T10:54:00.000-04:00

So, for those who haven't heard by now, we're packing up our DC life in the next week or so and heading back to Minneapolis after the Fourth of July.

Yes, this is the umpteenth time I have moved in the past year. So a) yes, it means I get to start over in a new kitchen and b) the next 10 days are going to be some oddly cooking as I attempt to cook through the odds and ends I have left in the kitchen, to avoid throwing away most of the food.

First up (and an easy fix) is a loaf of bread to cut down on the big bag of bread flour I bought last weekend for the pork buns. I frequently just use all purpose flour for my bread (and have fine results) but didn't want to mess with the Momofuku recipe too much.

I found this recipe in one of my favorite baking books (one of those cheap ones I picked up on a bargain table) for pull-apart cheese and herbs bread.

Basically, you make a regular white bread dough (mine felt a little tough initially but I kept going with it anyway) and then roll 20 little discs about the size of your palm. Rub about a teaspoon of cheese and herbs mix into the center, then stack and repeat.

You turn the discs sideways and let them rise a second time in the loaf pan, and with any luck, they'll expand and fill your pan (mine did!) Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with kosher salt, and bake for just 30 minutes. I turned the heat down a little and added about 10 more minutes. When I pulled apart the first time, it seemed that the cheese and herbs had kept the very insides of the bread from baking all the way.

The result was a really nice late night snack (and really awesome left over for breakfast today). In the future, I would probably rub the edges of the discs with a little oil or melted butter. The crust from the milk and salt makes the edges harder to pull apart. But the bread turned out beautifully, and I would imagine, you could rub thin pats of butter between the layers and make pseudo-quick-croissants with the same method.

Recipe:
1 packet active yeast
1 TBS sugar
1/2 c warm water + 1 cup (divided)
4 c bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 TBS olive oil (for the dough)
1 TBS olive oil (for the cheese and herbs)
1/2 block of cheddar cheese (I used white extra sharp) shredded
2 TBS fresh or dried herbs
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
3 TBS milk (for glazing)
sprinkle of kosher salt

In a small bowl, whisk together yeast, sugar and 1/2 c warm water and allow to expand (10-15 mins). If your mixture does not foam and expand, the yeast is dead. Throw it out and start over.

Sift together flour and salt then make a well in the bowl. Drizzle in olive oil and yeast mixture then mix well to combine. Slowly add the remaining cup of water as needed until a ball of dough forms.

Turn out on a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a damp towel. Allow to rise 30-45 mins for rapid rise yeast, 45-1 hour for regular active.

Punch down and knead again briefly. Mix together herbs, cheese, pepper and oil.

Cut dough in half and cover one half. Roll into a log and make 10 balls from each half. Roll into discs, 3-4 inches in diameter. Fill each disc with about 1 tsp of cheese filling, brush edges with oil and stack another disc on top. As you go, press down in the middle, to flatten the stack and keep even.

Turn your stack sideways and place in a well oiled loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise another 20-30 minutes, or until the dough reaches the sides of the pan. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sea or kosher salt.

Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees (rotate halfway through for even browning), then cover with foil, reduce heat to 325 and bake another 10 minutes. Turn out and cool slightly, but it's best eaten when still warm.

Homemade Momofuku steam buns - a success story!

2010-06-13T23:18:00.000-04:00

That is correct, folks. You are looking at homemade goodness there. No 2-for-nine-bucks business here tonight.

I followed the recipe in the Momofuku cook book almost to a T and had very nearly perfect results. What they don't tell you? The pork is very salty, the homemade pickles are very salty and the hoisin is very salty. And when you combine all three, it can be a little overwhelming. Next time, I'll cut back on the salt rub and probably give the pickles a good rinse before serving.

Otherwise, I tip my hat to the great Chang on this one. The steam buns were perfect - light and fluffy. My friends were just eating them plain they were so tasty.

As it turns out, "dehydrated nonfat milk powder" is not a common ingredient in Korean cooking, and I couldn't find it easily at the HMart. I subbed equal parts non-dairy coffee cream powder (which is a little sweet) and took out 1 TBS of sugar from the dough recipe and they were just fine!

Chang's recipe also does not come with instructions for if you do not have a dough hook and stand mixer. I just kneaded the dough very gently (since the dough hook instructions call for gentle and slow mixing) and had great results.

I also tucked a tiny rectangle of parchment into the fold of the steam buns to keep them from sticking. It worked really well. 10 mins in the steamer, and they were perfect!

I served them with a huge bowl of pineapple fried rice - so big a batch, it cracked my cheap $1 bowl from Target. Oh well... it was pretty for it's single use.

Dreaming? of leftover buns!! The recipe says it will make 50, but I ended up with 42. And after feeding 8 people, had 15 buns leftover.

Birthday food: shrimp scampi, tacos, mussels

2010-05-30T19:26:00.000-04:00

The past week has included mine and Jake's twenty-third birthdays, and we've had a ton of great food and a ton of fun celebrating.

Tuesday was my birthday, and I wanted shrimp scampi for dinner. Jake surprised me with those gorgeous yellow roses, but sadly I don't actually own a vase so they are now living in a juice bottle.

Some friends came over that night to celebrate and watch Glee. They brought CUPCAKES!!!

YUMMMM, oh man these were delicious!!

Next up was Jake's birthday - his favorite is tacos. So we stopped on the way home at Panam International downtown (the Latin market by our old house) for chorizo, queso fresco and some other taco fixings.

It's not terribly organized, but we had chorizo, steak, the queso fresco, onions, cilantro, and corn and black beans cooked with tequila and some spices. I topped them off with homemade salsa and homemade guacamole.

Yesterday we were in Baltimore for the day and had lunch at Bertha's Mussels on a recommendation from a friend. Jake had a phenomenally sour and salty bloody mary, our appetizer was four gorgeous shrimp coated in jalapeno cream cheese, then wrapped in bacon. This giant bowl of mussels was my main course:

We found dessert in Little Italy at a nice, casual desserts-only place called Vaccaro's. The. Best. Cannolis. Ever. See below:

I've had cannolis before - lots of them. But these had a decadent, creamy extra sweet filling, and were thick with chocolate chips and were just all around fantastic.

So, happy birthday to me and Jake!! We had a great time. :)

Teppan Edo Japanese dinner re-creation: steak, shrimp and udon

2010-05-23T23:08:00.001-04:00

During my last night at Disney World, we ate in Japan in Epcot, at the restaurant Teppan Edo. It was fun to watch the chef put together a meal for 8 people on the giant grill (above) but it was also a great excuse to try and re-create it at home the other night.

The main portions of the dish were easy to recreate, since I got to watch it being cooked. Zucchini and onion chopped and grilled, then mixed with udon noodles and a little soy sauce. Steak cooked to medium and grilled shrimp, served with white rice and a series of dipping sauces: white, ginger and mustard.

That's where it got a little interesting in the home kitchen. The white, I made a simple bechamel with cornstarch. It was creamy and complimented the shrimp nicely.

The ginger sauce also had kind of a peanutty creaminess to it, so I used peanut butter as the base for the second sauce.

The mustard sauce went a little awry. I had almost no idea what was in the one they served us at Teppan Edo, so I was sort of shooting in the dark. I don't think I came close to it, but it ended up tasting pretty good anyway.

Recipe: Japanese dipping sauces

White (for seafood):
Melt 3 TBS butter, then whisk in 1 TBS cornstarch. Brown slightly, then pour in 1 c of whole milk or half and half. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Whisk until thickened slightly. Set aside.

Ginger (for everything):
In a small saucepan over low heat, whisk together 3 TBS peanut butter, 1 TBS hot water, 1 TBS soy sauce, 1 TBS rice vinegar (or wine vinegar). Mix in 2 TBS freshly shredded ginger, 2 cloves minced garlic, and 1 tsp red chili flakes. Set aside

Mustard (for beef/pork):
In a small saucepan, mix together 3 TBS Korean soybean paste (doengjang), 1 TBS hot water, 1 tsp corn starch, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1 TBS stone ground mustard, 1 TBS hot and spicy mustard, 1 tsp lemon or lime juice.

For 2 servings:
Chop 2 zucchini, 1 medium sized onion. Saute together until fork tender. Season with pepper, sesame oil and soy sauce, then toss with cooked udon noodles. (sliced, cooked mushrooms can also be added)

Grill steak or pork, and shrimp. Serve with white rice and the dipping sauces.

Homemade Recipe Cards - wedding shower gift

2010-05-21T19:50:00.000-04:00

Forgive me, these were taken on my Blackberry this afternoon.

A co-worker is getting married in a few weeks, and we threw him a shower in the office today. I wasn't really sure if I should go with a gift off the registry (remember, I'm mostly broke!!) or even get a gift at all -- I've only known the people in my office for 6-8 months.

I settled on homemade recipe cards for pineapple fried rice, bulgogi and sesame noodles. Had I thought a bit more in advance, I think I would have rounded the gift out with some ingredients, maybe a small sack of rice and can of pineapple, or a package of Chinese noodles and a small jar of peanut butter.

My boss suggested I write "from the Kitchen of Emma L. Carew" on the backs of them, which I thought was a cute idea. If I could draw at all, I might have doodled around the edges, but ... well, I can't.

Anyway, I think they're fun, and I think they were well received! Anyone else used recipes for similar gifts?

Korean soup broth -- tteok guk

2010-05-21T14:34:00.000-04:00

I've written about my deep love for Korean rice cake soup, tteok guk, before. But, I've struggled over the past few years to replicate the broth exactly as I've had it in *real* Korean kitchens.

Well, the mystery is solved. The broth I made last night was pretty spot on to the real thing. The secret ingredients? Dashida and Bonito flakes.

Dashida is ones of those things I learned about in Korea, when I was working in the kitchen at Ae Ran Won. The cook kept hers in a jar, so I never saw it in a bag, which, like this one, labels it as "soup stock beef flavor." I just knew that it definitely went into soups.

Now, I still don't actually know what bonito flakes are made of (something fishy, I suspect, based on the smell when I opened them), but I saw them being used in a Korean cooking video and decided I should give them a try.

Voila! It worked. I took 8 cups of water, 4 heaping teaspoons of dashida and 1 of those packets of bonito flakes (also about 1 tsp of garlic powder) and this was the result: a beautiful, pale broth with a lovely flavor.

I also managed to get my hands on some actual tteok-guk tteok. So yes, I now have 2 huge bags of tteok in different shapes. I also have a 6 kilo brick shaped box of gochuchang -- maybe I really *am* Korean!! The tteok gets boiled in the broth for just a couple of minutes, until they float, and mixed with some sliced beef and green onions.

Last steps: drizzle in the beaten eggs (2 eggs + 1 egg yolk for this soup), and slice the nori sheets (3) into the soup, crack an obscene amount of black pepper over the top, and drizzle with sesame oil.

But, really, you can do whatever the heck you want. The broth is the star of the soup, and it's a great thin, clear broth with a ton of flavor. Go forth, and soup like a Korean.

Dreaming? of Star Wars cookie cutters, thanks to Bakerella

Gnocchi + carbonara sauce

2010-05-20T19:06:00.000-04:00

Post-Disney there wasn't a ton of food in the house, so this dinner came about as sort of a pantry/fridge dump.

This is also only the second time I've used gnocchi, and I severely under-salted the water. I also forgot to set aside 1 cup of "pasta" water before draining the gnocchi for the sauce. *sigh*

Anyway, I went with a garlicky "pseudo" carbonara sauce, spinach, tomatoes, bacon and artichoke hearts. Turned out pretty well for an on the fly meal, and it's made up of mostly staples, so give it a try for your next last-minute dinner.

Garlicky Gnocchi Carbonara
1 lb gnocchi (I used the ones from Trader Joes)
1 package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess liquid
3 to 6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 package frozen artichoke hearts (you could also use canned - drain & rinse them)
1 small can diced tomatoes, rinsed and drained
4-6 slices of bacon or pancetta, chopped
1/3 c white wine (if you have it on hand, you can sub 1/4 c olive oil)
1/2 to 1 tsp red chili flakes
2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
3/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
lots of freshly cracked pepper

* Bring a pot of well salted water to a boil, and cook gnocchi one minute less than directed on the package. They will continue cooking a little in the sauce.

* In a skillet, fry the bacon to your liking (not too crisp), then lower heat and add garlic, red chili flakes and artichoke hearts

* When the artichokes are softened, pour in the wine (if using) and scrape any brownings off the bottom of the pan. Mix in the tomatoes and spinach.

* In a separate bowl, beat the eggs then temper with 1/2 c of the gnocchi water. Mix in the cheese.

* Remove the skillet from heat, and mix the gnocchi with the wine and bacon sauce. Pour the egg and cheese mixture on top, and combine. Top with lots of freshly cracked pepper, and parsley if you have it.

Dreaming? of my last meal in Disney World at Teppan Edo in "Japan"

Sticky caramel and coconut cupcakes

2010-05-09T21:45:00.001-04:00

These cupcakes are adapted from a cake recipe my friend Holly introduced me to in college. "Bette than sex cake," was what she called it. Not exactly safe for bringing goodies to work.

Take your favorite chocolate cake - we use Betty Crocker German chocolate (yes, I actually used a box mix for this). Poke holes in the cake as its cooling. If you're making a sheetcake, use the end of a wooden spoon. For these, I used the larger end of a chopstick.

Let the cake cool completely. Mix together 1 ~~can~~ jar (about 12-14 oz) of caramel and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and pour over the cake. This gets insanely messy. I ended up sort of painting it on with a silicone brush. addendum: For a sheet cake, you will probably use all of the caramel, and all of the condensed milk. For 2 pans of cupcakes, I had a TON of leftover, so I just spooned it back into the caramel jar for later uses.

Give the caramel about 30-45 mins to soak into the cake. Use 1 can of pecan coconut frosting and ice the cupcakes.

Top the frosting layer with a layer of whipped cream (the recipe calls for cool whip). I also like to go one step further and dip them in coconut.

Dreaming? of a cupcake reunion with Holly and Courtney

Recent cooking adventures: barbecue ribs, beer brats, homemade calzones, and penne carbonara

2010-05-09T14:52:00.001-04:00

Just because I've been a bit neglectful of the blog doesn't mean I haven't been continuing to cook!

Take a peek at a few things I've been up to lately - beer brats last weekend, then a major cooking marathon of side-by-side barbecue ribs and homemade calzones, then last night's creamy carbonara:

Carbonara is one of the first dishes I learned how to make when I started cooking for myself sophomore year of college. I had never even heard of it, but read an article about Rachel Ray, and how it was a special meal for she and her husband. I loved how it was nicknamed "coal miner's pasta," and I decided to make it myself.

The worst screw up I have ever had cooking this dish was making the mistake of drinking some of the wine while cooking, then laying down on the couch while the bacon and garlic browned. Lesson learned: never walk away from the stove for a quick lie down. Especially not while you are an overworked college student.

I recently had a pasta special at the little cafe next door to my office that was called carbonara but was a really creamy sauce, almost as thick as alfredo.

I decided to try to incorporate a little of that creaminess into my dish this weekend.

Penne carbonara recipe:
(adapted from Rachel Ray)

1 lb pasta (I like rigatoni for this, you can use regular spaghetti. I used penne this weekend), cooked to just before al dente in salted water. Reserve 1 c of the pasta cooking water.
1/3 lb pancetta or about 8 slices of bacon
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp red chili flakes
1/2 c white wine, like pinot grigio
2 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 c heavy cream or half&half
3/4 c shredded or grated Parmesan cheese (can use a mix of Italian cheese)
handful of chopped parsley
black pepper

Fry bacon until not quite crisp. Remove from pan and chop roughly. Drain the fat from the pan. Reserve entirely if you have uses for it, otherwise keep just 1 TBS

Heat 1 TBS bacon fat over low heat, return bacon to the pan and stir in the garlic and red chili flakes. Saute about 2 mins (do not burn the garlic), then stir in the wine. Increase the heat and allow alcohol to evaporate. The liquid will reduce by about half. Turn off the heat.

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and yolks, then slowly stir in about 1/3 c of the pasta water to temper the eggs. Mix in the half&half (if using) and the cheese.

Slowly stir in the egg mixture into the pan sauce, then quickly toss in the pasta. Season liberally with freshly cracked black pepper and parsley.

And, if someone has a good way of reheating carbonara that *doesn't* cause the egg in the sauce to scramble, please let me know.

Dreaming? of my next Disney trip, in just one week!

Kimbap - Korean sushi rolls

2010-04-24T22:37:00.000-04:00

I first learned how to make kimbap (Korean rice rolls that are most similar to Japanese sushi) from a friend's mother when I was in Korean dance. Most of us were adopted, so Jinhee's mother taught us to cook a few Korean dishes. This was also one of my favorite street foods when I lived in Korea.

Kim (also sometimes pronounced gim) is the Korean word for seaweed, and bap (also pronounced pap) is the word for rice (also sometimes the word for meal or the general concept of eating or having eaten), but in this instance it means rice.

You can put pretty much whatever you like in kimbap - like bibimbap, it's a way for ajummas to clean out their refrigerator. I used carrot, cucumber, picked daikon (dan-muji), imitation crab stick, and fried egg.

You start with your filling ingredients sliced thinly, about the length of a sushi nori sheet. I also sauteed a bunch of spinach with garlic, pepper and sesame oil, and finely chopped the leftovers from last night's bulgogi dinner. Other options are ham or spam, tuna, kimchi, fish cake (odang), pickled burdock root, ground beef, and so on.

Jake was nice enough to take these action shots of me making a kimbap roll. Jinhee's mother (and every other Korean I've witness making kimbap) was very good at expertly rolling all the filling up so tightly, it wouldn't budge. I, on the otherhand, don't always get enough rice, and sometimes roll mine too loosely.

You want about 2/3 of the nori (shiny side down) to be covered with sticky rice. Dip your fingers in water before pressing the rice down. Make sure the rice covers the kim all the way down to the corners and edges. Dress your rice with about 1/2 TBS sugar, 1 TBS rice vinegar and freshly ground black pepper and cool to room temperature before starting.

Lay your flat ingredients first - the spinach (squeeze as much moisture out as you can) and the meat.

Then add the rest of your ingredients, trying to keep them as close together as possible. Make a thin line of rice at the very top of your sheet, this will act like glue and seal your roll.

Hold the ingredients as far to the bottom edge as possible as you roll upward, squeezing tightly to form the roll.

Use a very sharp knife to slice the kimbap. Brush them with sesame oil and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Serve with a dipping sauce.

Dreaming? of hot, fresh kimbap off the street stands in Seoul

A healthier Parmesan artichoke dip

2010-04-24T16:41:00.000-04:00

Saturday while preparing my recreation of Momofuku Ssam bar's spicy rice cakes and pork, I was a little peckish, so made this dish to have something to snack on while assembling all the pieces of the Chang dish.

I saw this box of baby artichokes last week and H Mart and just couldn't resist picking them up. I'm always amazed at the amount of waste these little things can produce once you pull the tough outer leaves and stems.

I'm also not a believer in dunking your hearts in vinegar or lemon juice to keep them from browning. One of my favorite food writers, Mark Bittman has written about this.

They steamed for about 12 -15 minutes, or until fork tender. When I sliced them in half, I found I hadn't quite cut away enough of the prickly parts, so quartered the hearts and trimmed them at a diagonal to remove the sharp tips.

I tossed the still warm quartered baby hearts with 2 pats of butter (less than a tablespoon), 1 TBS grated Parmesan cheese, some salt, pepper and chopped dill and taragon (you could, of course use any fresh herbs you had in the house).

The butter and the cheese made it seem a little creamy, and the herbs made it taste so fresh. I suppose you also could have thinly sliced some baby spinach to boost its veggie count. I served it on some water crackers, but they were good plain too. Way healthier than restaurant artichoke dip, but filling and delicious!

Recipe:
Parmesan Artichoke Dip
1 box baby artichokes, trimmed of tough outer leaves and prickles (about 2 dozen)
2 small pats of butter (just less than 1 TBS)
1 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
salt/pepper to taste
2 TBS freshly chopped herbs (I used taragon and dill)

Steam baby artichoke pieces for 12-15 mins until fork tender. Quarter and trim any remaining prickles.
Toss with melted butter, cheese and herbs.
Serve with crackers or toasts.

Momofuku Ssam Bar: Spicy Rice Cakes and Pork dinner

2010-04-19T15:14:00.003-04:00

Top: Momofuku Ssam Bar's spicy rice cakes and pork // Bottom: My weekend re-creation

The tteokbogi dish at Ssam bar was absolutely awesome. Jake and I, of course, are big fans of anything that involves eating tteokbogi as a main course of a meal.

This dish adds pork and some veggies to round out the rice cakes and sauce, making it a bit more like a meat sauce for spaghetti.

I knew as soon as we got home I wanted to recreate it using the recipe in the Momofuku cook book.

It turned out to be fairly complex, so I saved it for last weekend's big cooking project.

The sauce was so much more than my usual tteokbogi sauce - starchy water from boiling the tteok, gochuchang, a spoonful of sugar, drizzle of sesame oil boiled down until it coats the back of a spoon. No, this sauce was a masterpiece. 2 sliced onions, seasoned pork, scallions, greens (the restaurant uses Chinese broccoli, I used the cores of baby bok choy) mixed with gochuchang, some water, doengjaeng (Korean soybean paste) and silken tofu.

Now, I took a few liberties with the sauce -- I don't keep things like "Schezuan peppercorns" around the house. I also misread the tofu requirement and only had firm tofu - the kind you fry, not the kind you stir into sauces. That turned out to be an easy fix, I just put a few tablespoons of the firm tofu in the food processor with a few tablespoons of boiling water until it was silky and creamy.

I pan fried the tteok giving it a crispy outside to the soft chewy inside then drizzled with some sesame oil.

Here's the sauce with the onions mixed in. It's much lighter than my usual sauce because of the tofu.

The other thing I misread was about the fried shallots that topped the meal. Turns out the recipe calls for using packaged ones -- which I have never heard of, nor seen at a grocery store. I just fried 2 shallots until they were crispy (though a little burnt on one side) and they tasted fine.

Overall, this dish was totally worth the effort. Mine had a lot more sauce than the original at the restaurant, which was fine by both me and Jake. The sausage was spicy and salty from the gochuchang and doengjaeng. The tteok was crisp to the bite, then chewy inside.

Pitas, hummus, and falafel dinner - almost like New York

2010-04-12T13:26:00.002-04:00

Sunday dinner (clockwise from the pitas): pitas, parmesan couscous salad, hummus (smaller red bowl) w/ paprika garnish, tzaiziki, tahini and falafel.

This was the first time I had ever worked with dried chickpeas, but found it to be just as easy as everyone else has said. I covered them with boiling water and kept them on low heat for a couple of hours. Had I planned far enough in advance, I could have used cold water and just left them over night.

I used half the chick peas to make hummus, which I made using homemade tahini for the first time. About halfway through, I found a full and unopened can of tahini in my fridge, but found I like the homemade version so much better. It's richer and nuttier and less oily. The food processor really was my kitchen workhorse for this meal - and because all of the flavors were blended together, I didn't bother to wash between making the tahini, hummus and falafel mixes. Here's the hummus spread on some bagel pieces:

Next, I rolled my pita dough and let them rise. They're so cute and fluffy.

I also made a tzaiziki sauce with yogurt, cucumbers and dill to serve with the falafel.

Jake caught some awesome light photographing the pitas while they cooled. We just used the grill pan (Jake acted as grill master while I rolled each little pita)

The falafel themselves were a mixed bag. I didn't take the time to chill the mixture as suggested, so they were fairly crumbly. After frying each side for a couple of minutes to brown, I popped them into the oven on a baking sheet for another 10 minutes. The second half of the dough went into the fridge over night, and I baked them for 12 minutes on each side the next day. They held up considerably better, and I was glad not to have all the oil fried into them.

The end result was not as exciting as it had been the weekend before at Karavas Place in Greenwich Village, but still tasty when paired with a couscous and avocado salad.

Recipes:

Hummus:
2 1/2 cups soaked chickpeas
3 cloves garlic
2-3 spoonfuls of tahini (homemade optional)
3 TBS olive oil
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
pinch of salt, to taste

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Squeeze a quarter lemon over (removing seeds) then combine again. Serve with a sprinkle of smoked paprika.

Pitas:
1 packet rapid rise yeast
1 TBS sugar
1 1/2 c warm water
(combine and leave in a warm place for up to 10 minutes until foamy and expanded)
4 c flour
2 TBS olive oil
pinch of salt

Mix yeast with flour and salt then drizzle olive oil. Knead until smooth and elasticky (I do this by hand). Invert a bowl over the dough and allow to rise for up to an hour.
Punch down, then knead briefly and shape into 12 balls. Cover with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise again until nearly doubled in size.
Roll balls until about six inches in diameter and thin. Grill over medium high heat until browned on both sides.
Serve warm.

Falafel
2 1/2 c of soaked chickpeas
1/2 a medium onion
3 TBS chopped cilantro
3 TBS chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
salt/pepper to taste
1 tsp baking powder
4 TBS flour

Combine all ingredients in food processor until coarsely chopped. Use hands to gently shape small golf-ball-sized balls, then flatten slightly.
Optional - fry on each side 3-5 minutes until browned
Transfer to a cookie sheet at bake 12-15 mins on each side at 300 F.
Serve with pitas, tahini, hummus and tzaiziki sauce.

New York food adventure

2010-04-10T00:29:00.001-04:00

Last weekend for Easter, I decided to drive up to New Jersey to spend some time with both sides of my family, and also try to sneak in a day in the city. Awesome, awesome choice.

First, I got to experience a day of Polish cooking with an aunt on my dad's side. Sadly, not many photos of this exist, as I was up to my elbows in the sink squeezing cabbage like my life depended on it.

This is about the first half of the gwumpkies, and we also made perogies - using a different recipe than the one I tried before. The dough was WAY better, but I wasn't as crazy about the cabbage filling (nor the process of squeezing 10 lbs of cabbage).

Perogie dough:
5 c all purpose flour, more for kneading
1 egg
2 TBS sour cream
1 c water
1 c milk

Whisk together the liquids, make a well in the flour, combine, and knead until smooth and elasticky. Keep chilled and covered until ready to use.

The other very awesome aspect of the trip (besides getting to indulge in two beautiful Easter dinners) was having a food adventure in New York. I don't usually write about restaurant experiences, but this was a bit out of the ordinary.

First we stopped in Greenwich Village, where I was able to purchase Amateur Gourmet's book and Jenny 8. Lee's book together for $15 at a small second-hand shop. AG saw my Tweet about it and even offered to find a time to meet to sign my book!

We picked Karavas Place on a whim for lunch and it turned out to be awesome. We had the hummus and falafel platters - both were fresh and delicious. I don't think I've ever had falafel that good before. It's definitely going on my list of things to try and re-create.

I can't resist a good piece of baklava, so imagine my surprise when the woman (whom I think may own the restaurant) plunked this beast down in front of me. NOM.

Dinner had to be David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar in the East Village -- I've been dying to go here ever since I bought the cookbook. We met up with Bao, a MN transplant living in NYC and a fellow food enthusiast. We didn't have enough people for the ssam dinner (plus we eat bo ssam fairly often), so Jake and I both ordered the "spicy sausage and rice cakes" which turned out to be an amazing variation on our beloved tteok bogi.

After splitting some cookies from Milk Bar (the compost cookie actually made it back to NJ, then back to DC where it made up half my lunch on Monday afternoon), Bao brought us to Chikalicious for dessert. I *wish* I had thought to photo my desserts. They were adorable. Needless to say, if you can afford the $14 prix fixe menu you should definitely try to make it. They were beautifully crafted, and such a fresh and clever blend of flavors. Who knew pink peppercorns could make an ice cream flavor? Or that it would be brilliant paired with a port sauce?

This weekend it's back into the kitchen for me! Possibilities: Momofuku steam buns (they were to die for!), compost cookies, pitas....

Dreaming? of my next NYC food adventure!

My very first roasted chicken

2010-03-27T22:36:00.001-04:00

Lately, I've been watching a lot of Food Network while I'm at the gym. Tuesday, I caught an awesome episode of Giada De Laurentiis making a roasted chicken with spinach pasta and I decided to give it a try this weekend.

I've never actually roasted a chicken before, and with my oven being so uneven for heating, I was a little worried.

This dish relies on fresh oregano, lemons, oranges and garlic for a really fresh flavor. That was really the best part of this dish - how flavorful the chicken turned out.

One of the things that I realized at knife school is how much a cook really should be handling the meat. I gave the chicken a good wash, swished out the cavity and then played around with it a little.

Next, the orange, lemon and a bulb of garlic get cut into chunks and stuffed into the cavity of the chicken.

Lots of kosher salt and pepper inside the cavity (before loading it up with the fruit), and also patted all over the bird. I also cut a tiny slit at the other end of the skin and patted some under the skin, in hopes of really getting down into the chicken.

Set the bird breast side up on a rack in a roasting pan and roast at 400 F for one hour.

My oven is REALLY hot and fairly unpredictable. I had it at 375 F for about 40 mins and the bottom of the pan was already starting to sizzle, so I pulled it out and basted.

I poured about a cup of stock into the bottom of the pan to deglaze (you use it for a sauce later). The recipe also calls for a glaze made of orange juice, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and oregano. I brushed it on every 25 mins or so until the chicken was done.

As expected, things got a bit crispy. If I had been thinking ahead, I probably would have bought some foil to cover this for part of the roasting to help keep the skin from burning. I also ended up pulling the chicken out 20 mins before recommended, and one of the legs/thighs wasn't cooked all the way through.

Carving didn't go quite as slick as planned. I think I could stand to find a YouTube video on carving chickens. I'm sure they exist by the dozen.

The side dish to the chicken is a spinach and cheese sauce, heavy on the spinach. Giada used goat cheese, which I don't usually have around the house, so I subbed some shredded Swiss and cubed Jarlsberg. Tasted just fine!

The end results were delicious. The chicken was really tender, and I thickened the pan juices a little (extra juice squeezed from the cavity fruit wedges and strained into the mess from the pan) to make a really sweet and savory gravy.

And the pasta was really fresh and creamy tasting without being too heavy. There was extra sauce, so I'll definitely be making this again soon.

Dreaming? of my next, not-so-burnt roasted chicken

Chicken! Inspired by curry

2010-03-21T12:05:00.000-04:00

Ok, so this week's Serious Eats Weekend-Cook-and-Tell was based on curries.

I was super excited, and by Friday I had my game plan. I consulted with a friend, Shruti (@inothernews), who, being Indian, I consider to be an expert of the curry realm. She gave me 2 awesome looking recipes for shrimp curry. I did a Google search, and found an Indian market a few blocks from my house.

It all went downhill when I headed out to the Indian market and found this:

Where my market should have been: a Seven Eleven, a Greyhound bus station, and a Chinese restaurant. #Googlefail

I'd like to say that my friendly neighborhood Giant Foods came to the rescue, but let's not kid ourselves. I was able to pick up some mustard powder, but none of the other ingredients Shruti had directed me toward.

So, back to the chicken. I had these chicken drumsticks I picked up last week at HMart. $7.50 for 18 drumsticks. Yes. I threw 8 of them into the crock pot with some stock and a hodge podge of spices: 8 cloves of garlic, ginger, a ton of kosher salt, white pepper, a sprinkling of garam marsala, some yellow curry powder I picked up from an Ethiopian place, and some chili powder. I let them go until the chicken was nearly falling off the bones.

The chicken went into the oven at 325 to crisp up the skin, and in a sauce pan, I mixed 2 cups of the crock broth, about 1 1/2 c Greek yogurt and about 1 TBS cornstarch until a creamy, dark yellow sauce formed.

I also made some rice - sushi rice was all I had in the house (and Giant wanted ridiculous amounts of money for a small sack of basmati), so I made rice with some more of the seasoned broth.

You've already seen the results. It was delicious! But, sadly, I feel it's ingenuine to my friend - who tried to help my cause - and basically an insult to an entire culture to call my dish "curry." So - chicken and rice, inspired by curry.

But, for next time, here's the recipe:

Shruti's shrimp curry

2 pounds shrimp, peeled deveined
2tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp pepper, crushed
10 karhi (curry) leaves (if you can get them)
1 tbsp lemon juice
vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, in slivers
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 tbsp paprika
3/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp turmeric (I saw fresh turmeric at my whole foods today!!)
3 hot chilis (less if spice averse)
14 oz of coconut milk.

1. heat few tbsp of oil, when hot, add the mustard seeds , when they are popping, add the curry leaves, if using. then add the onion and garlic, stir fry until lightly browned then add the ginger.
2. add 1 cup of water, turmeric, salt, chilis, coriander and pepper and paprika and cayenne and lemon juice and bring to a boil. simmer for 5 minutes.
3. add the shrimp stir around until they are opaque, stir in coconut milk. heat it through and serve!

dreaming? of *real* Indian food. I think I have a Groupon for an Indian place nearby!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-14T23:18:00.000-04:00

Ok, a bit early. But I had my friends over for a big corned beef and cabbage dinner today.

St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays, mostly because of the meal involved. My mom's side has done a big St. Pat's dinner the last couple of years that I've been around. Lots of fun (as is always the case with them), and a TON of food.

I only have one full-sized burner, so it involved a little creative maneuvering of pots and pans. By the end of the night, I had 4 corned beefs, 2 soda breads, 2 1/2 cabbages and about 7 lbs of potatoes.

The soda bread is my Nan's recipe, which I've written about before. In an attempt to cut down on the number of dishes, I did the bread in one bowl.

Cut up butter, sugar, salt and baking powder. Technically this is something that could be done in my food processor, but it seems more traditional to do it by hand.

Buttermilk, of course, the secret ingredient to Irish Soda Bread.

Egg wash keeps the inside moist and gives the outside a great crust.

End result? Beautiful.

Next up? the corned beef. I seasoned with kosher salt and white pepper, bay leaves then covered with water. I started one in my crock pot and one in a stock pot. The crock never got quite hot enough, so I had to finish the crocking one in the stock pot.

When the meat comes out of the boiling stock (after about two hours), score the fat side. Mix a paste of dark brown sugar and Guinness (or whiskey in a pinch) and spoon over the top of the meat. Bake covered at 375 for about 15 minutes, then uncover for another 10-15 minutes.

Flip the meat and score the other side. Spoon the remaining paste into the back side of the meat and bake uncovered at 375 until a nice glaze forms.

While the meat is baking, put the cabbage (cored and cut into quarters) and potatoes (also cut into quarters) into the same pot as the stock.

Season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve with butter and Irish soda bread.

Dreaming? of TONS of leftovers from this giant feast.

Up, up and away!

2010-03-14T22:43:00.000-04:00

Today was an awesome day for cooking/baking.

I took the opportunity to bake the cake inspired by the new Pixar movie "Up," from this Serious Eats Cakespy post.

Not a perfect cake by any stretch of the imagination. The cake was much denser than I imagined it would be, especially after I burnt the outsides and bottoms of the cake a little. The frosting was amazing though.

The main alteration I made to the original Cakespy recipe was using lemon zest instead of 2 tsp of lemon extract. Baking can be an expensive habit, so the thought of picking up food coloring *and* lemon extract didn't really seem worth it. Bag of lemons on the other hand? Definitely. So I zested 3 lemons and toss that into the creamed butter and sugar.

Speaking of the butter and sugar: 3 sticks of butter and 3 cups of sugar. The recipe suggested creaming the butter and sugar for 20 minutes. Yes. 20 minutes. Clearly, written by someone who owns a standmixer. Not this girl. My handy-dandy hand-mixer started to smell a little crazy after about 8 minutes, so I shut it down and let it rest a few minutes. I added a bit of extra time in between each of the 5 eggs, hoping to make up some of the remaining 12 minutes.

The original recipe also didn't have a specific number of drops of blue food coloring, so I guessed. I had about 7 or 8, but it turned out not to be quite enough. The yellow of the lemon turned it slightly green. I'd probably use more like 12 or 15 next time around.

Anyway, it looked beautiful once it was frosted. Again, lots more butter involved.

Tons of coconut pressed into the cake, and some bent DumDums pressed into the corner. Beautiful.

Inside view of the balloon cake.

Dreaming? of floating away in an adorable blue and white, coconut house with little candy balloons.

Knife School!

2010-03-09T12:50:00.000-05:00

So last night I finally cashed in on my last Christmas gift from Jake: a knife skills course at Culinaerie, a local cooking school downtown.

I trussed and spatchcocked a chicken, then learned how to supreme an orange, and got complimented by the Chef as she walked by and saw my diced carrot (!) - though it was a bit uneven, it was much smaller and finer than the others around me. I also learned I hold my chef's knife a bit like a spaz and learned to get a bit more control on it. Nice -- sure that will come in handy long term!

What I learned most of all, is that I could not survive in a real chef's kitchen, or therefore, culinary school. I cook so much now, I have developed my own style for things, and am used to using my own tools and my own methods. I dice unevenly. This does not bother me. But my pieces, no matter how tiny, are uneven and would probably be trashed on the spot in a "real" kitchen.

The culinary arts intrigue me - especially after having read Julia Child's memoir, but I'm fairly certain that's not a path for me. I hope to continue taking "recreational" courses that focus on one skill or another, like the knife skills course, simply to learn from a real chef and boost my techniques.

A Momofuku spin on tteok

2010-03-08T11:27:00.000-05:00

David Chang, owner of the Momofuku restaurants and writer of the cookbook, is Korean American and describes his memories of having tteok bogi as a child.

Tteok bogi is a big favorite of Jake's, so it was a natural sidedish to go with the ssam I was cooking last night. Chang writes about his grandfather's method of pan roasting the tteok, so I decided to give it a try.

I parboiled the frozen tteok (though, I imagine if you were using fresh, you could skip this), then scraped the burnt pork off the pan and tossed in the tteok with a little oil spray.

The results? Jake and I both decided this kind of tteok isn't always for us - but would definitely be welcome from time to time. The tteok gets crisp on the outside, but are still wonderfully chewy on the inside. The grit from the pan adds a little smoky flavor to the dish.

Pan-roasted tteokbogi, inspired by the Momofuku cookbook. I made the sauce the way I usually do (diverging from Chang's recipe here) in a separate, small saucepan and poured it in at the end of the dish, then allowed it to thicken. Bring 2c water (use the water you par-boiled the tteok in, to capture any starch that may still be left - it will thicken your sauce nicely), 2-4 TBS gochuchang (Korean red pepper paste), 2 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 TBS sugar to a boil, then reduce to about 1 1/2 c. It should coat the back of a spoon and drip slowly, more of a syrup than a total liquid.

Momofuku inspired ssam

2010-03-07T23:10:00.001-05:00

Finally back to the cooking! I finally used a gift card from the end of my last internship and put it toward a big ticket item: the Momofuku cookbook.

In truth, I've never eaten at a Momofuku restaurant. But after just an initial flip through of the book (which is full of recipes, and also the well-written back story of the chain), I think I'm going to have to make it a destination on my next NYC trip.

I made ssam tonight - which is the feature of one of Chang's restaurants, and one of the items we made on the grill at mine and Jake's recent trip to Hee Been. Being, as previously discussed, one of the worst Korean's in the world, I couldn't actually explain the differences between bossam and ssamgyapsal - in my eyes, they are both sliced pork belly wrapped in lettuce leaves and served in doengjang or ssamjang and grilled garlic. The term "ssam," as best I know, simply returns to the "wrap" portion of the dish.

Following the direction from the Momofuku book, I prepared the sliced pork belly with salt and sugar. I gave it a few cracks of pepper for good measure.

Pork belly acts a bit like giant slices of bacon. It gets crackly and delicious when tossed on a screaming hot grill pan. The pork belly I bought came with the skin still on. I sliced it off, and threw it into the freezer with my many "for stock" odds and ends.

Most Korean restaurants serve thinly sliced raw garlic with their barbecue dishes. It can be a little intense, so it's common at table-top grilling places for people to throw the garlic on the griddle, like I did here. The garlic grills in the excess fat from the pork, and turns brown and sweet.

Ssam pork, grilled garlic, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste) and lettuce for wrapping. Layer everything inside the lettuce and pop it into your mouth!

Dreaming? of my future meal-to-be at one of the Momofuku restaurants.

PS - if anyone can actually explain the difference between bossam and ssamgyapsal, PLEASE do so in the comments! I'm dying to hear the truth on this!

Late night hunger, conquered by quinoa

2010-03-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

I've had a small bag of quinoa sitting in my pantry for a few months now, and being hungry and not having grocery shopped since coming back from Disney, I decided late last night was the time to use some of it up.

People have really differing opinions on how to cook quinoa. Mine's from the raw food bins at Whole Foods, so I rinse mine really well before using it. And since I'm usually not making much more than 1 cup at a time, I usually cook it stove-top with about 1.5 to 1 water to grain ratio.

I seasoned this with some red chili flakes, season salt and paprika, brought it all to a boil and let it cook on med-high with a lid for 10-15 minutes until all the water is absorbed. I stir mine frequently throughout, to make sure the seasoning is evenly distributed and to check on the kernels to see if they've popped yet.

I also sliced some string cheese into the quinoa and threw in a handful of cashews. YUM. The salty mozzarella brought out the seasonings, and the cashews complimented the nuttiness of the grains. I plan to make a larger batch of this tomorrow with some spinach and bake it so I can take it for breakfast next week!

Red Quinoa dish:

1 c quinoa

1.5 c water or broth (or half/half - I used about 1/2 c homemade stock)

season to taste with paprika, season salt, chili flakes or other herbs of your choosing

1-2 string cheeses sliced, or about 1/3 c shredded cheese of your choosing

1/4 c toasted cashews (you could probably use any nut you had on hand for this)

Bring grains, water and spices to a boil. Cover and continue gently boiling 10-15 mins until all water has been soaked up, stirring occasionally. Layer cheese, quinoa, cheese, quinoa to help the cheese melt, then stir in nuts.

Optional: mix in 3/4 c chopped dry spinach, and bake at 325 up to 10 mins.