New baby herb garden!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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"