Avocadorable

Hearty Lamb Stew

2011-10-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

I made this lamb stew when the temperature had dropped from 85 degrees to upper 50's a while back. Then, it got warm back again for the last several days. The sun was shining, no humidity, it was just so beautiful, and I was thoroughly enjoying being outside. I even forgot that I had made lamb stew--until now.

It's chilly again today. What a typical fall weather of New York! One minute it's summer-like hot, next minute, must-wear-a- jacket-like cold. It makes it hard for me to decide what to cook, too.

And of course, on the day like today, lamb stew would be perfect, but I just went grocery shopping yesterday, and I don't have anything that I can make stew with....

But tomorrow, I will definitely go grocery shopping again and make this stew!

Here's how I made the lamb stew.

1 1/2 lbs of lamb for stew
1/2 onion (medium to large size)
3 cloves of garlic
3 to 4 husks of celery
2 medium size tomatoes
1 1/2 lbs mushrooms
1 cup of bread crumb
1 1/2 cups of red wine
8 cups of water
2~3 bay leaves

In a large pot, heat olive oil and sautee chopped garlic and onion until soft.
Add celery, carrot, mushrooms and sautee more
Add lamb until it turns brown
Add tomatoes
Add about 8 cups of water, red wine, and bay leaves
At low heat, cook for 2 to 4 hours
Add salt and black pepper for taste
Add bread crumbs to make soup thick

The most amazing chocolate chip cookies I ever had.

2011-10-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was looking for my cork screw when I wanted to open a bottle of wine. My friend who came over for dinner and I just couldn't find it. Then once I stopped looking for it, I found it right away. Well, it was right in front of me, as a matter of fact. I am sure you all have had experiences like that. When you are looking for something, you can never find it. Once you stop looking though, that very thing you were looking for just appears right in front of you. It could be a cork screw, or a house key, or...

To me, the recipe for chocolate cookies was one of those things. I was looking for a perfect recipe of perfect chocolate chip cookies for a long, long time. Chocolate chip is my favorite kind of cookie. It's something so simple and so delicious. But because of its nature of being such a simply delicious cookie, it is very hard to make good ones. My ideal "perfect chocolate chip cookies" are nice and crispy outside, but chewy and so soft inside, and chocolate chips melt inside the mouth. Mmmm....

So in the last 10 years or so, I had tried numerous recipes online. I searched recipes by typing such words as "delicious" "amazing" "yummy" "chewy" and "heavenly"...but turned out, none of them were something that I was looking for.

Then, I was invited to my friend's house the other day, and let our kids have a play date. There, this really beautiful mom of two boys, Elizabeth, brought chocolate chip cookies and that was it.

That was it!

That was the perfect chocolate chip cookies I was forever looking for! When she brought the cookies, they were still warm and the chocolate chips were melting in my mouth....I asked her for the recipe, and she was kind enough to give it to me right away. She also said it's ok for me to post it on my blog, so here's the recipe for mind-blowing, dangerously delicious chocolate chip cookies!

Mix together in a small bowl the following:

1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/8 teaspoon baking soda

Mix in a large bowl, using mixer and beaters mix until fluffy:

1 stick of butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/3 cup of brown sugar

Add one egg, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat well.

Add the small bowl of flour, salt, and soda to the large bowl and mix until just combined.

Mix in one full bag of chocolate chips (approx. 2 cups) and some nuts, if you like.

Let the dough chill in the fridge for 2-24 hours. To bake, make small round balls of the dough on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, until cookies are just golden brown around edges. Let stand on cookies sheet about 10 minutes before removing with a spatula.

Quinoa Risotto with Mushrooms and Gorgonzola

2011-10-02T01:36:00.000-07:00

I slept with a fluffy down comforter last night, and finally I feel the fall season is here. In one of my latest blog posts, I wrote how I was trying to hold onto the summer which was rushing to leave, but now I am ready to let it go and welcome fall. Fall also has many attractive seasonal foods, and mushrooms are one of my favorite foods of this season.

I had a handful of dried porcini mushrooms at home, and bought some fresh shiitake mushrooms. And I know those two flavorful mushrooms can play such a nice teamwork in making good risotto.

I soaked the dried mushrooms in the water for about 15 to 20 minutes until they become soft, and the water turns dark brown.

While the dried mushrooms are getting ready to be cooked, I crumbled gorgonzola cheese...

I sauteed garlic and onion with olive oil, then added shiitake mushrooms, and the soaked porcini mushrooms along with the the water I soaked them in.

I also added chopped up tomato (I only had a yellow tomato at that time), poured some white wine, and
then, gorgonzola cheese. Mmmm....

At this point, there is a good amount of tasty liquid produced from the fresh shiitake mushrooms, tomato, and the brown water from dried porcini mushrooms, and I just added about 1 1/2 cups of quinoa and let it simmer covered until quinoa sucks up the liquid and turned nice and fluffy.

I sprinkled parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley on top, and this dish was such a delightful way of welcoming the fall season.

Great Snack for Family--Brazilian Cheese Bread

2011-09-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Just like potato chips, this Brazilian Cheese Bread is something you cannot just have one of. You can't help eating at least 3 or 4. Or even more. They are called "Pao de Queijo" in Portugese, and the first time I had them was about 10 years ago at some Brazilian restaurant in Manhattan. I specifically remember how good it smelled especially when it was fresh out of the oven. The smell of melted cheese was incredibly appetizing, and it was crispy outside, but chewy inside...basically I fell in love. Then about a year go, my family was invited to a birthday party of a Brazilian girl who just turned one, and there were tons of pao de queijo! So I asked the mother of the birthday girl how to make them, and she told me Brazilian grocery stores sell easy pao de queijo mix in Queens.

The problem is, I can't bother going all the way to a Brazilian grocery store in Queens. I live in Brooklyn, don't have a car, have a little child, and taking subways to Queens is not ideal. So I looked up some recipe online, and by following several recipes, I came up with my own ingredients and measurements to make my version of pao de queijo.

Tapioca Flour--200g
Milk--150ml
Parmesan Cheese--100g
Canola Oil--4tsps
Egg--1

1. In sauce pan, heat up milk and canola oil and turn off heat right before boiling
2. Add milk and canola oil into tapioca flour, and stir well.
3. Knelt until it forms dough and add egg and cheese.
4. Make small balls on baking pan and bake about 25 minutes at 360 degrees

I had never imagined how easy it was to make this, and it is such a great snack for both little kids and adults. My little one loves to have it for his afternoon snack between lunch and dinner, and I love to have them with wine at night.

Peach Jam to Cherish My Summer Memories

2011-09-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

It will a high of 72 degrees today in New York city , and we can still walk outside with just a T-shirt during the day. But the temperature drops as soon as the sun goes down in the evening, and will no longer rise above 80 degrees until next summer. Soon, heirloom tomatoes and peaches will disappear from my neighborhood farmers markets and grocery stores. All my inspirational food bloggers, such as The Cilantropist, She Who Eats, Honey & Jam, etc. all seem to cherish summer vegetables and fruits.

I feel the same way. As always, New York's summer is so short and goes by so quickly. I did enjoy going to the farmers markets, and I ate a ton of tomatoes, zucchini blossoms, and all the good things summer can bring. But, I am not ready to let them go just yet, so I decided to make chunky peach jam, pretending to pack my summer memories and carry into fall...

As soon as I came up with this idea, I hurried to my local grocery store, and scored several beautiful white peaches. They were a little bit too unripened to eat, but that is okay because I was going to cook them down anyway.

I purposely cut them into big pieces so I can make them chunky. I didn't even bother using a food mill either. So I guess it is more like chutney than jam. I boiled them in water for about 40 minutes, and added a little bit of sugar.

Once the liquid became nice and syrupy, I packed the peaches and juice into mason jars and boiled them for another 45 minutes to preserve them. These will last us until next season (only if I can resist not eating it right away), and for instant use, I used an empty jar of blueberry jam we just finished!

My baby loves peach flavored baby yogurt, and that was really my inspiration of making this. The way he eats yogurt (well, to be precise, the way he smears yogurt all over his face) makes me want to take one of his baby yogurt, but it obviously makes me feel guilty for taking one. So I just bought one big container of Greek yogurt, and poured my peach jam over it. And that's what we had for breakfast yesterday, and it was guilt-free scrumptious breakfast!

Saag Tofu--Spinach Curry with Tofu

2011-09-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

I think I can eat Indian food every day. When my husband and I traveled to Spain a few years ago, we had a layover at the Heathrow airport for about 2 hours, and since London is known for a large population of Indian people, we assumed there must be good Indian restaurants at the airport. So at this ginormous airport, we were forever looking for an Indian restaurant, and we almost missed our flight! That's how much I (obviously my husband, too.) love Indian food. One day, instead of in London, I would love to visit India, and have authentic Indian food there.

Even in NYC though, there are many great Indian restaurants and we go out or order in Indian food a lot. One of our all time favorite dishes is saag paneer, a sort of spinach curry with cheese.

A few days ago, when I spotted beautiful organic spinach, I bought 4 bunches and that's when I decided to give it a try to make my own saag paneer. But instead of using cheese, I substituted it with tofu. So I guess I should call this dish "saag tofu"? The reason I used tofu was that I didn't know what kind of cheese is good to use for saag paneer, and I always thought the texture of peneer was very similar to firm tofu.

As for how to make saag peneer, I did look up some recipe online, but as usual, I never follow the direction precisely. Here are what I used besides lots of spinach; garlic, onion, ginger, coriander, mild curry powder, cumin, cilantro, Greek yogurt, and firm tofu. I really wanted to use garam masala to add a spicy kick to this dish, but I wanted my little one to try it too, so I chose not to.

In a big pot, I sauteed chopped garlic onion, and ginger with butter. While those were getting cooked, I boiled the spinach in the covered frying pan with just a little bit of water, (I saved the water that comes out of spinach so all the nutrients woud not go waste) and put it in the food processor.

Then, I added the spinach to the pot, along with the water from steaming it, Greek yogurt, and cut up firm tofu. Then I added all the spice, and a little bit of more water to make it nice and soupy. I cooked it for about 2 hours or so with really low heat...and here is the result!

This little guy was eating Indian food like nobody's business. This made me so happy because if you think about it, this dish is super healthy. So much vitamin A and C from spinach, protein from tofu, and more protein and calcium from yogurt.

This result also truly proved that he is the son of us, the parents who would try to find Indian food even at the Heathrow Airport...

Ribs--Finger licking good!

2011-09-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

My previous post was all about veggies, and this post is about meat. Baby back ribs. There's only so much meat I can eat at a time, and for someone like me, ribs are perfect. It looks like a big hunk of meat, but in reality, more than half of is bones, so I don't get the heartburn-like discomfort feeling which often occurs after I eat steaks or meatballs.

As I was trying to figure out how to cook the ribs, I found this long skinny bottle of tequila, which was sleeping in our tiny, tiny wine rack. The wine rack is for wines, not for tequila! (I think my husband bought it at the airport sometime ago when we were traveling to somewhere in Caribbean, and I think he even forgot about it, too. ) Then I said to myself, why not make a use out of this for the ribs?

First, I chopped up ginger, garlic, cilantro, and onion....

Then I added lime juice, vinegar, salt, sugar, soy sauce, and a drizzle or two of tequila.

I let the ribs suck up this tequila sauce for at least a half hour....

Along with fingerling potatoes, I threw in the oven for about 1 hour at 450 degrees.

The garlic and onion topping on the ribs got so crispy, and thanks to the tequila, the ribs were so tender! I didn't even bother using a fork nor a knife. You know why? Because it was finger-licking good!!

Black Eye Peas Veggie Burger

2011-09-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

I believe I had initially bought these beans for making soup. However, it is still too hot to be eating hearty thick bean soup right now, although I do feel that autumn is just around the corner...

So I had to come up with an idea to use these beans, some recipe which fits this season.
Veggie burger! I had to give myself credit for this brilliant idea.

In my kitchen, there conveniently were garlic, onion, parsley, lentils, and oatmeal.

So I was going to boil black eye peas and lentils together, but I figured lentils would make the texture of burger too soggy, so I decided not to use them at last minute. So just peas only, I cooked them down until soft, but not too soft. It is the same reason for not using lentils. It would be hard to make burgers if the texture of peas are too soft.

While the peas were being cooked, I sauteed onion and garlic, and chopped fresh parsley. Once the peas were cooked, I mashed them with a spoon. Then, I added the rest of ingredients, which are sauteed onion, garlic, chopped fresh parsley, oatmeal, and I also added an egg (it's optional. You can make it without egg, too). It was such a great idea to add oatmeal because it is dry so it sucked all the moisture, and with an egg, they helped to make burger patties easily.

Once I made patties, now it's time to cook them. I wish I had a barbecue grill, but I don't, so I pan fried them with olive oil. Here, using high heat is very important. By making the surface of the patty crispy, it holds the shape together, and it doesn't crumble.

There! I dressed the burger with toasted brioche, a thick slice of tomato, onion, and arugula. It was such a tasty burger! It was so tasty that I wanted Samuel Jackson from Pulp Fiction try it and tell me what he thinks.

For my little one, I didn't make the whole burger, because it was obviously too much food for an infant, but I made a mini veggie burger, mashed it and mixed it with spinach and rice. He seemed really enjoying it.

Peach Pie for Farewell

2011-09-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

As the peach season is about to end, it was time for us to say good bye to my son's nanny. My son is starting daycare this week, so last week was literally the last week for him to be with her. She was really great. She was so flexible with my short notice request to take care of him here and there, he was always so excited to see her.

So as to show my appreciation to her, and as a way of saying farewell, I decided to bake a peach pie for her. She told me she had a sweet tooth, so I thought it'd be nice to make a home-made pie, instead of buying one.

I came up with this idea because I just bought a bunch of peaches at a farmers market. But the problem was, I had never baked a peach pie.

That's okay--I could kind of figure out what to do...using these juicy fresh peaches, you can't really go wrong!

I had about 4 to 5 large peaches so I boiled them for a minute or so to peel off the skin. Then I cut into big pieces so that even if they are baked in the pie, you can still enjoy the good flavor of the fresh peaches.

For the pie crust, I followed this recipe, and then I simply placed the peach, added just a spoonful of sugar, and sprinkled cinnamon.

After baking about 45 minutes in the oven, here's what delivered to Janet. It looked nothing like a pie made by a professional patissier, but it looked very home-made-like, and Janet was very happy with it.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Shiso

2011-08-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

I bought 4 different kinds of mushrooms at an Asian supermarket. I bought shiitake, maitake, shimeji, and white mushrooms. I never understand why mushrooms in America are so much cheaper at Asian supermarkets than at regular supermarkets. But, because they are, I can't help buy lots of mushrooms every time I go grocery shopping at Asian supermarkets.

Another item I always buy at Asian supermarkets is shiso leaves. You see them at sushi restaurants, and sometimes trendy bars have such a drink as shiso mojito, but this is something hard to find at regular supermarkets.

So with those 4 kinds of mushrooms and shiso leaves, I made pasta. Obviously not traditional Italian style pasta, but Japanese style pasta. My mom used to make something like this when I was growing up.
Simply, sauté lots of garlic with butter and olive oil, add mushrooms, pour white wine and soy sauce.

Garnish with finely chopped shiso leaves on top.
Thats it.
Dinner was ready within 15 minutes.

Zucchini Carrot Bread with Parmesan Cheese

2011-08-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

I love it when my refrigerator is filled with food. When I was still single, living alone, and had to only feed myself, my refrigerator was usually empty. Simply because it wasn't worth buying all kinds of groceries just to cook for myself, and I was too busy going out for dinner, drinks anyway. Basically I was enjoying my single life to the fullest in the greatest city, well, in my personal opinion--NY. But things have changed since then. Now I have a family to feed and cook pretty much everyday, my (or should I say "our") refrigerator is filled with milk, cheese, eggs, all kinds of fresh produce, leftover from last night's dinner, etc. Every time I open the fridge, I see a variety of food, and it somehow gives me a very homey feeling, and it's quite nice. Not to mention, many times in the past, I came up with best recipes when I tried to get rid of whatever was left in the refrigerator and needed to be used before rotting.

This weekend, we had plans lined up, and I wasn't sure if I would have to cook, so it was once again time for me to make something with what is left in the refrigerator for the sake of not wasting any food.

So I decided to make another healthy snack for my little one and his friends.

Zucchini Carrot Pound Cake.

Besides all the mini zucchinis I used, which I talked about in the previous post, I still had more zucchinis! Well, after all it's summer time, so zucchinis look so attractive and I can't help myself buying extra.

By baking this pound cake, I can give my little one as his snacks and it helps feeding lots of veggies. It is also naturally sweet from carrots and zucchini so I only added a little bit of sugar, and used olive oil instead of butter.

Here's the recipe:

flour-1 1/2 cups
olive oil 100 ml
parmesan cheese 1/2 cups
zucchini 1
baby carrot 15 pieces (it's up to you!)
egg 2
sugar 1/4 cups
baking powder 3 tbs

1. Shred zucchini and carrot in the food processor (if you don't have it, chop them up well) and by squeezing by hand, make sure drain the water well.

2. Sift flour, and bp, add sugar, 1., and mix them well.

3. In a different bowl, beat eaggs then add olive oil.

4. Add 3 to 2, add cheese, and stir well.

5. Bake about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Can you imagine how good it smelled when it was just taken out of the oven? The parmesan cheese played a really nice roll of spreading good aroma in the kitchen, and the texture was so soft as I put so much zucchini and carrot. Kids also enjoyed it so it was definitely success!

Couscous Stuffed Mini Zucchini

2011-08-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

I was always aware of the presence of little zucchinis at famers markets in summer time, but I had never bought them because I was not sure how to cook them. A few days ago, I came up with a recipe so I finally brought those cute little munchkins home.

I love the way they look. The color looks so bright and beautiful, and they are as if to simbolize the sunshine of the summer. Just putting them on the kitchen counter is kind of like an artwork, too. Their bright color adds a nice touch to the kitchen decoration.

And my little monkey seems to love them as well. He thinks they are new toys (balls). But before this little monkey starts throwing the zucchinis and bruising them up, I had to take them away from him and cut them up.

I made zucchini cups. This process was kind of like making a little Jack O'lantern!

To me, cooking is very therapeutic. It was a little bit of time consuming to make these little zucchini cups with my limited cooking tools, which were a regular table knife, a clam knife, and my hands, but it was a mindless process, and I didn't mind it at all. I need time like that sometimes, especially when I am dealing with my super active son, who wears me out by 10 o'clock every morning. And I do things like this while he takes a nap in the middle of the day. I don't hear him screaming, no throwing balls, and no swinging baseball bat...just making the zucchini cups in silence was so nice and peaceful that it felt almost zen-like.

In those cups, I stuffed wheat couscous and ground beef (organic grass-fed), sauteed onion and garlic, mint, and golden raisins, white wine, and a wee bit of parmesan cheese. I came up with this combination when I decided to use couscous. It is Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food, so I was trying to remember my dining experiences in Moroccan restaurants and they use lots of mint with meat, raisins, etc...so that was basically the inspiration of this stuffing.

I made extra stuffing so I gave my son for dinner, and he loved it. I was also stuffing my mouth of several scoops of this stuffing before stuffing the zucchini cups!

After baking them about 45 minutes in the oven, the zucchini got very juicy, and the top of the stuffing got crispy so they were complementing each other...this dish was worth lots of process...

Freshly Caught Tuna Salad with Garlic Chips

2011-08-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

My husband's boss went tuna fishing the other day, and gave us a big hunk of his fresh catch! With a half of it, I made sushi and sashimi. With such a fresh tuna, it is sort of an obligation to eat it some of it raw, don't you think? You definitely don't want to cook it all the way like a can of tuna. But there's only so much sushi and sashimi we can eat, so I seared the other half and made a salad with my own dressing.

I wish I could share the recipe of my original salad dressing, but I didn't measure anything...I just used my feeling, senses, and by tasting and adjusting the flavor little by little, I somehow made up the dressing, and it was damn good. As far as the ingredients, I used roasted sesame, tahini sauce, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, canola oil, sugar, water, and spicy garlic chili sauce. In the near future, maybe I will try to make the same dressing and will update this post to share the recipe...

And the kicker of this salad was the garlic chips! I simply sliced garlic and panfried them in olive oil. If you try this, make sure you use low heat! As you know garlic tends to burn so quickly so yo don't want to use high heat.

Now, what I did with the tuna was lightly marinated it in soy sauce and sake. Then I seared the surface with leftover oil from making garlic chips for about 5 seconds on each side (yes, only 5 seconds!) and let it cool down. This gives a really nice garlicky flavor to the tuna.

On the bed of mixed green, cucumber, tomato, avocado, and onion, I placed tuna slices, and poured my delicious salad dressing to finish it off. I am definitely making this for my family next time I visit Japan, the country where you can get freshly caught tuna so easily.

Super Healthy Baked Chicken/Tofu Nugget for Kids

2011-08-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've been taking photos of lots of baby food that I've made since my little monkey was born. It is not that I had anything against already made baby food that is being sold at supermarkets, I just simply enjoy making baby food for my son. But unfortunately, my super active little man threw a soccer ball and knocked a glass of water all over my pc, hence it went kaput. I had all my baby food pictures in the dead pc and I haven't had a chance to transfer its hard drive's memories to my computer so this is going to be one of the first post about baby food.

Chicken nuggets. Kids love chicken nuggets. The ones from McDonalds--they taste so good, but now I am a grownup, I know how bad they are for you. So instead of going to McDonalds and buy several pieces for about $1, I decided to make one just to see how it is.

I bought about a pound and a half organic chicken breast and ground it in the food processor. Then, I added a pack of silken tofu, lightly seasoned it with seasoning salt and made individual nuggets. Dip nuggets into flour and instead of deep frying them, I slightly panfried them with olive oil, and baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

The result was...Amazing!!!

Seriously, it tastes just like regular chicken nuggets, and the fact that I added tofu made it very fluffy. I couldn't even taste the tofu either. I made them for my little one and his friend, but I think they are great finger food for adults as well. They most certainly go well with beer! And look how much I could make in one batch. If we have leftover, we can certainly freeze them.

This is something that I would like to continue sharing in this blog. By adding a little trick, we can turn not so healthy food into healthy one and quite enjoyable at the same time. We can also help our kids grow healthy, which is my ultimate goal.

Yogurt Panna Cotta with Peach Sauce

2011-08-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

We drove North from NYC for a little over an hour to visit a beautiful farm. My little one was so excited to see all kinds of farm animals like cows, goats, sheep, chicken, etc...
I was so happy to be surrounded by green trees, and just being in the beautiful scenery. The day we visited the farm was so gorgeous that I couldn't ask for better weather.

And I brought home some peaches!

This was when I just boiled them and peeled the skin. Aren't they beautiful?

With these peaches, I wanted to make sauce for panna cotta. When I looked up some recipes for peach sauce/jam, they all say "add sugar." But these peaches were already very sweet, so why should I bother adding sugar to ruin its real peachy flavor ? So I just simply crushed the peaches into small pieces by squeezing them with my hands, and boiled them until they got soft and liquidy. Then I put it into the food processor just a little bit to make it smooth.

While the peach sauce was being chilled in the fridge, I made panna cotta. The way panna cotta is made is usually with milk, heavy cream, skim milk, sugar, gelatine. But once again, I twisted the traditional way of making panna cotta in my own way. I added yogurt, and reduced the amount of heavy cream and milk.

Here's how I made my panna cotta.

Yogurt (I used 0% fat greek yogurt) 150 ml
Heavy Cream 200 ml
Milk 150 ml
Sugar 50 g
Gelatine 8 g
Water 50 ml
Vanilla Extract

Mix above ingredients in a saucepan, stir and heat until right before it starts boiling. Turn off heat, add rum (3 tbs), and let it cool down. Once it's cool enough, pour it into individual dessert cups, and keep in the refrigerator until cold.

Add the peach sauce on top (I also put some in the bottom) and it is ready to be served.

So simple, so easy!
Note: I added a couple of fresh raspberries into the peach sauce just for coloring purpose. I thought it'd be pretty to make the sauce a little bit pink to complement the yellow peaches.

California Uni

2011-08-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

As I just tweeted how I wish I could find uni at any regular supermarket in the US, I found California uni at a Japanese grocery store in Manhattan. Yes! Lots of people find uni an acquired taste, but to me, it's a delicacy and I love it. I like uni from California (to be specific, the ones from Santa Barbara or San Diego) much better than the one from Maine, which I find too "mediciney". California uni is so rich and creamy like butter and I think it is as good as the one from Hokkaido.

While my husband was taking his client out to dinner, this is what I made for myself. I put my little one to bed first, and I had uni alone, in silence. It was simply heavenly.

Kale with Bacon and Mushrooms

2011-08-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Kale....
Let me tell you a little bit about my relationship with kale. When I was doing a CSA share last summer, I was getting kale almost every week. I made salads, sauteed, stir-fried, baked...I tried to cook in various ways, but I was seeing kale too often, and I no longer appreciated its existence so I decide to keep a distance with kale for a while. Kale became sort of like some annoying boyfriend who just wants to be with his girlfriend all the time. Kale was in my kitchen all the time, and I got turned off.

But kale and I got reunited a few days ago when I made sauteed kale with bacon and mushrooms. At my local grocery store I found really nice applewood smoked, thick center-cut organic bacon with not so much fat on it, and wanted to make some nice dish. I am not the biggest bacon fan by any means, but I appreciate a good quality one, and when I saw this bacon, I just had to grab it!

Anyway, I boiled kale for about 3 minutes then chopped it finely. Unlike spinach, kale is touch to chew, so by boiling and chopping finely my little one can also eat it easily. Next, I sauteed a little bit of garlic in the pan with olive oil and added the nice chunks of bacon. I also added a dash of white wine and balsamic vinegar, which brought out the bacon's smoky flavor. Then, I added mushrooms and the chopped kale, sauteing until mushroom got nice and soft.

My reunion with kale was very nice. I think we can rekindle our relationship now, because I already came up with another recipe! So stay tuned for upcoming blog posts!!

Vichyssoise with My Homemade Tomato Sauce

2011-08-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

Vichyssoise is a thick soup made of pureed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and checken stock. It is traditionally served cold, but can also be eaten hot....(Wikipedia also explains how this soup was born, which I thought was very interesting. )

I prefer vichyssoise cold, and I make this dish every summer. But this time, I twisted the traditional way of making vichyssoise a little bit, and added my homemade tomato sauce!

Why? Because just a few days ago, I made awesome tomato sauce with juicy ripe tomatoes and I simply had urge to use it for making something.

So here's how I made my untraditional vichyssoise:

1. Boil potatoes, onions (that's right, I used onion instead of leek), a little bit of garlic, and add butter to water.
2. Once potatoes become very soft, drain the hot water and puree the potatoes, onions, and garlic in a blender.
3. Add tomato sauce, cream, milk, and salt.
4. Refrigerate until cold.
5. Add chopped tomatoes, boiled asparagus, and sprinkle fresh parsley.

That's all. Isn't it simple? By adding tomato sauce, the dish gets a very pretty color and refreshing flavor, and I also liked the fact the soup was not too thick.

My little one loved it, too. It is packed with veggies, and I am so glad he was enjoying it.
It was such a delightful meal (obviously we didn't have just soup, we had other dishes, too) for an early dinner, and it was perfect for breakfast next morning as well.

Summery Fresh Corn Salad

2011-08-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

I love grilled corn at BBQ parties in summer time. But unfortunately, we don't have a backyard nor a grill in our tiny New York City apartment, so I decided to make summer corn salad instead. I had 3 ears of unhusked corn and boiled them for about no more than 2 minutes. Then I added chopped red pepper and onion. Initially, I was going to use tomato, but I figured it would get too watery so I decided to use red pepper instead. I thought the bright red pepper and yellow corn make a nice colorful dish. Then, I added chopped cilantro, fresh squeezed lime juice, salt, fresh black pepper, olive oil, and parmesan cheese.

Finally, I garnished the salad with gouda cheese, which I conveniently had in my fridge.

This is my summery fresh corn salad, the recipe I just created with what was available in my fridge, and it came out way better than I expected. I love it when that happens.

Super Healthy Banana Raspberry Yogurt Cake

2011-08-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

My little one was not so interested in raspberries. Until 2 days ago. All of a sudden, he started eating them as if he was in the raspberry eating contest. So I went to get a lot more raspberries for him. I would do anything for my monkey...

In the afternoon of the very same day though, he quickly lost his interest in raspberries. He just wanted to play with them by sticking his finger into raspberry's hole. Ugh.

So I decided to bake a cake with raspberries. A banana raspberry yogurt cake (what a long name!) My little one loves banana and yogurt so I have made banana yogurt cake many times before. This time, basically I followed exactly the same recipe, and just added raspberries in it.

Before baking in the oven, it looked like just a mere banana bread, but...

I did put a plenty of raspberries as you can see from the side. This cake is so very healthy because...

Reason A. I barely add any sugar because there's natural sweetness from banana.

Reason B. I put so much yogurt (more than the amount indicated in the recipe.

Reason C. I use canola oil instead of butter.

Reason D. You get so much Vitamin C from raspberries....

This is also perfect for little kids' snack and my little one was enjoying it so much. I am sure he didn't know he was eating raspberries with it though. But that is okay...

1 1/4 cups (160g) of flour

3 bananas (2 for smashing, 1 for decoration)

2 tbs baking powder

1/4 cup of sugar (40g)

1 egg

2 tbs canola oil

1/2 yogurt (100ml)

10~15 pieces of raspberries

1. Smash banana into small pieces with a fork

2. In a separate bowl, sift flour and baking powder, then add sugar.

3. Add 1 into 2 and mix them well

4. Add beaten egg, yogurt, oil and mix them well.

5. Pour the batter into a baking dish and place raspberries into the batter evenly (let raspberries sink into the batter)

6. Slice the rest of banana and place them on top of the batter.

7. Bake about 45 minutes at 340 degrees

Baked Okra with Goat Ricotta Cheese

2011-08-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

I just bought a bunch of okras. When I saw how big they were, and how fresh they were, I got so excited and couldn't help buying so many of them. Don't they just look so beautiful?

A while ago, I ordered Indian food and I had a really good okra dish, so I was thinking of trying to make something Indian-dish-like, but then something happened on the way home from grocery shopping.

My 19 month old got so excited as he saw a big loud food delivery truck just pulled over to the side of the road and he started screaming in his own language. Then, the truck driver goes, "Okay buddy, hang on!" Along with my son, I was just wondering what this truck driver was up to. He went inside of the truck to get something, and handed my son a little present. That little present was...

A block of cheese!! It was nicely aged goat ricotta cheese! What a nice guy he was! My son was so happy, but I think I was happier. Because I automatically came up with an recipe with the okras I had just bought.

Cut okras into half and put them in the baking dish.

Place ricotta cheese on top, pour beaten egg, cover them with panko, add some seasoning, and pour olive oil...

Bake them for about 30 minutes, and garnish with fresh parsley...

Okra is nice and soft, but it is crunchy on top. Needless to say, it was good.

Quinoa for Brunch

2011-08-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Everyone has been talking about quinoa for quite sometime now. Quinoa this, quinoa that...including myself. I love quinoa. I started cooking it since my little one was born. It's just great. Super healthy, rich in iron, and it goes with pretty much anything.

One thing I've never done was to have it for breakfast/brunch. So last weekend, I did. With fresh parsley, asparagus, watercress, parmigiano reggiano, and most importantly, poached egg on top....

Ah!! Just looking at this picture makes my mouth so watery.
After running in Prospect Park in the morning, it was such a nice savory meal.

Garlic Pork Fried Rice

2011-08-03T22:15:00.001-07:00

Yes, I've made fried rice a bunch of times before, but this fried rice was inspired by one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in West Village. The restaurant specializes in pork dishes, and their fried rice is amazing! So I tried to make something similar to that dish. Obviously I don't know the recipe for it, but by tasting it carefully and numerous times, I could sort of figure out what is in it.

Here is how I made. First of all, TONS OF GARLIC. I fried them with sesame oil, and also added good amount of scallion and cilantro. All the good stuff! Once they are cooked, I added ground pork and seasoned them with soy sauce, sake, and sugar.

At last, before adding rice into the frying pan, I let a day old cold rice soak with beaten eggs. This prevents eggs from sticking to the frying pan.

Ta-da.

My original garlic pork fried rice. This fried rice was one of the best I ever made.

Chilled Pasta with Tomatoes and Anchovies

2011-08-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

look how juicy tomatoes are looking. Tomato is one of the reasons I love summer so much.

Just looking at these bright red tomatoes make me so happy.

My friend was coming over to my place on a hot sunny day, so I offered to fix her lunch, something quick and simple. Chilled pasta with tomatoes and anchovies, that is. Probably I've never had a cold pasta dish like this in any Italian restaurants in New York, but eating chilled pasta like this is fairly common in Japan, and it is surprisingly scrumptious in summer time.
It is so easy to make, too. Just sauté chopped garlic and anchovies with olive oil, pour some white wine, and add cut up tomatoes (I purposely cut tomatoes into big pieces since they were just so juicy), and simmer for a while. Then chill it in the fridge, mix with chilled al dente pasta, and sprinkle some freshly chopped parsley on top...

My friend loved it.

Salmon Burger

2011-07-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

As I was flipping through the pages of a Japanese recipe book I borrowed from the Brooklyn Public Library, this dish stood out more than any other recipes. Salmon burgers. The interesting thing about this recipe is to make salmon burger with potatoes and pork. Salmon with pork. Salmon with pork...??? Besides the fact that I only had salmon, not ground pork in my fridge, I somehow didn't want to mix those two. So instead of using pork, I used oatmeal. Turned out, it was such a brilliant idea. Oatmeal made the burger nice and fluffy and it was not so heavy.

Along with my crab meat salad with somen noodles, which I will talk about later on in this blog...

This was our dinner. Something very simple, but I believe the colorful food makes it look very appetizing.

Pasta into Ramen Noodle

2011-07-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

As NYC was getting hit by a heat wave this past weekend, I was craving hiyashi chuka, a cold ramen noodle dish which is so popular during the hot summer months in Japan. Did I have fresh ramen noodle stocked to make that? Of course not. But, I did have some pasta in my cupboard...could I substitute an Italian product for Asian noodles? No way. Contrary to my what most people may think, they are not the same thing! Then I remembered how a Japanese friend mentioning a secret way to make ramen-style noodles using regular pasta.

Are you ready to hear this long-lost secret rumor? Add baking soda to the water as you boil the pasta.

I was very skeptical about this, how could baking soda turn pasta into ramen? I convinced myself it wouldn't work but tried it anyway.

As I was boiling the pasta with baking soda...to my surprise, i started smelling the familiar "ramen shop" aroma!!! It instantly took me back to Japan.
While I boiled the noodles, I prepped the toppings and tare, the homemade sauce vital to hiyashi chuka.

The hardest part of cooking this dish is egg. You beat eggs like scrambled eggs, but you don't make scrambled eggs. You just have to make one big thin layer of eggs on the frying pan, and once it's done, fold them like crepe and cut into thin slices. I can't explain why, but trust me - without this egg, hiyashi chuka is not really hiyashi chuka....

As far as other toppings though, you can put anything you'd like. This time, I chose eggs (a must!), seaweed, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, and smoked ham. Many Japanese use chashu, Japanese-style roasted pork. Easily found at any supermarket in Japan, here in Brooklyn there is no such luck, so I chose cold cut smoked ham. Next time, I may use tuna or shrimp...

How pretty is this dish? It's so colorful, hearty, healthy, and cold. It's just a perfect dish for summer.