Things I've cooked lately (lots of photos)

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

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! 

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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

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.

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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

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

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. 

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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

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

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

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).

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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!