Jonas and Orange Hot Chocolate

We all know there was some serious snow this weekend in the NJ/NY area (see Winter Storm Jonas 2016). I hope everyone is safe and well-stocked with hot chocolate and nice teas.

A few days before the storm, I saw a recipe for orange mocha in my inbox and decided to try it out during the weekend since trains were suspended anyway.

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• 1 packet of Via instant coffee (Veranda, I didn't have espresso so this was a good sub)
• 2 cups of milk (I used non-fat, you can use anything from skim to half-n-half)
• 10 tbsp of hot chocolate mix (I had Max Brenner's dark chocolate handy, you can use your favorite mix)
• 2 tbsp of turbinado sugar (you can skip this or use any type of sugar you like to taste, it was just what was in the pantry)
• 1 orange (for zesting only, but go ahead and eat the inside anyway!)
• Optional items: nutmeg, cinnamon, other spices of choice.
• orange cookie (optional. I happened to have one of these sitting around from Maison Kaiser. it was a nice chocolate cookie with candied orange pieces. you can also obviously drink your hot chocolate with any cookie or sweet you like. 

Directions:

1. Measure out all ingredients
2. Take a knife or zester and get a good 3-4 large strips of orange zest
3. Pour milk into small sauce pan to heat up on low heat
4. Mix in sugar, hot chocolate mix, coffee, and orange zest strips
5. After low simmer for a few min and most items mixed, pour out hot chocolate in serving mugs (discard orange zest strips)
6. Top each mug with whipped cream, marshmallows, and small amount of fine orange zest

Sources:

Original mocha recipe with video: http://1912pike.com/recipe-orange-mocha/
Four ways to froth milk: https://youtu.be/iLNmPRPQ6UU

Donburi with tomato rice

I really like donburi (egg/veggie/meat) over rice bowls from Japanese restaurants. The other day I came across a simple vegetarian version and decided to try it out.

Ingredients:

• tofu (medium firm)
• green beans (or other veggie of choice)
• onion
• garlic
• scallion
• eggs
• mushrooms
• chicken stock (or any stock, I didn't have dashi)
• sugar
• salt
• soy sauce

Directions:

1. chop up all veggies (garlic, onion, scallion, mushrooms)
2. whisk eggs with dash salt, tbsp or so of sugar, and a bit of stock. I didn't include soy sauce as in the original recipe. I like to control soy sauce by sprinkle some after the whole thing is done
3. heat oil in pan, then cook garlic and onion until fragrant/translucent
4. add mushrooms, tofu, and green beans and cook until soft
5. add egg mix to pan and cover with lid for 2-3 min
6. check to see if the egg consistency is to your liking
7. top off with scallion and a bit of soy sauce if you like

source recipe link: http://www.otakufood.com/tofu-mushroom-donburi/

I made tomato rice to go with the toppings. To make it, just add tomato sauce (to taste) to the water as you cook rice in a pot. pretty awesome. 

p.s. I didn't follow a recipe. I happened to have some left over tomato sauce from cooking chili previously and just decided to add it in rice and see what happens. there we go. genius stuff.

Baked French Toast

I've always enjoyed Challah french toast from various brunch places but truth be told, always thought it was too difficult to make myself. Then J. reminded me that there is a baking recipe and I had not been diligent enough to document our baking session in my blog. In an attempt to bring french toast baking recipe back, I browsed the web for some inspirations and made a few french toast breakfasts in the past week. 

The star of the show today (cue arcade game music of your choice)

no Pacman was harmed during this cooking session

Ok, on with the show.

Baked French Toast

ingredients:

• sugar (brown is probably best, but I had regular sugar, so I just used it)
• cinnamon
• nutmeg (optional, to taste)
• milk
• eggs (2-3 per each batch)
• salt
• egg challah (3 or 4 fat slices will be fine. you can also use brioche)
• butter (enough to coat pan)
• citrus zest (optional but is also life-changing. orange zest is best, but lemon is fine too)

directions:

day before making french toast

• leave bread out to harden (about an afternoon or so)
• make mix by combining 2-3 eggs, 1/2 cup of milk or more with a pinch of salt.
• melt butter (i used about 1 tablespoon or so). 
• butter bottom of baking pan. note that I used a circular one because it's my smallest pan. You can use larger pan if you plan on making more.
• Spoon out enough sugar to coat bottom of pan lightly.
• Add spices to taste. For me, that means a lot of cinnamon and nutmeg
• place bread in the pan
• pour on egg mix

• cover with foil and place in fridge overnight

day of cooking french toast

• preheat oven to 350 F.
• add zest to pan
• bake for 30min or until golden brown
• wait for pan to cool a bit and gently flip entire round french toast onto plate (this was an unintended surprise during my experiment, but hey, I'll take it)
• Optional step: Decorate with smiley face (can use syrup or sauce). Cut into funny shapes.
• Serve with any favorite french toast embellishments (powdered sugar, maple syrup, berries, etc). I actually didn't have maple syrup so used apricot jam and chocolate sauce instead. They also work nicely.
• Bonus: your room will smell like heaven. You are welcome.

source recipes:

baking (this is the main one I used, although I mostly guesstimated the ingredients):
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-oven-baked-french-toast/

frying:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/french_toast/

tips for frying:

http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/common-mistakes/article/the-7-most-common-french-toast-cooking-mistakes

more tips and inspirations

http://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/12-food-hacks-for-perfect-french-toast-every-time-0157474/

Kugel, Miso, and Apple Crisp

What is any holiday without food? J. and I made some tasty dishes recently and I thought I'd share.

Savory Kugel

ingredients (serves 6):

• 8 oz egg noodle (the pack I got was 16 oz so I just took half) cooked and drained
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sour cream (small container of sour cream was just this much)
• 1/8 cup cottage cheese (small container of cottage cheese) 
• 1 cup Gruyere cheese grated (if you don't have a grater, just cut it into small pieces. it melts well), separated into two containers. one for mixing and one for sprinkling.
• chopped chive (leave for very end otherwise it will fill your entire house)
• veggies (we used broccoli, you can use whatever vegetable you like)
• chicken (we got some grilled chicken from the hot buffet at the market while picking up groceries. saves cooking time for sure)
• 2 tbsp butter
• salt
• pepper
• bread crumbs

directions

1. preheat oven to 350F
2. mix cooked egg noodles with some melted butter and salt/pepper
3. in another bowl, mix eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, chive, chicken, broccoli, and Gruyere
4. add noodles to mixture above
5. add entire thing to greased pan, then sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of cheese
6. sprinkle topping (bread crumb with a bit of melted butter)
7. bake for 30-40 min until edges are crispy and fork comes out clean 
8. great for dinner or a side

extra props for J. for researching and recommending this recipe. Pretty fun to make and delicious too.
source material: http://food52.com/recipes/7810-savory-noodle-kugel

mixing ingredients 

a square of the kugel with its crispy top

Miso Soup

ingredients

• 1 or 2 tbsp of miso paste (you can get white/red/whatever type you like, I used some type of reduced sodium organic kind from the supermarket)
• half a package of tofu cut up into cubes (silkier the better)
• ginger (sliced or grated)
• seaweed (papery thin kind)
• soup seasoning (I didn't have dashi mix, just used chicken stock. I guess beef stock or vegetable stock is probably fine)
• chopped scallion and/or cilantro (optional garnish, all to taste)
• salt / pepper (to taste)

directions

1. prep soup stock
2. add ginger to soup
3. add tofu and simmer
4. add seaweed until it spreads out 
5. take a soup ladle full of soup and place in a bowl, mix with a table spoon or more of miso paste
6. lower heat, lower above to soup and mix gently, do not boil over.
7. serve with chopped scallion or cilantro or both! You can add spinach or egg if you want. Miso soup is easy to make and always tasty.

Apple Crisp

ingredients

• 3 apples (I was trying to figure out granny smith or fuji tasted better... they were both fine)
• brown sugar (I didn't have this so I just used regular cane sugar) 
• lemon juice
• water
• topping: 
• cinnamon and nutmeg
• graham cracker crumbs (J. made the crumbs by crushing some graham crackers. put them in a ziplock bag and crush under a pan)
• melted butter
• more sugar

directions

1. preheat to 350F
2. cut up apples
3. mix with lemon juice (prevent browning) and sugar
4. put apples into greased pan with water, sprinkle topping on top
5. bake at 30-40min until tender
6. sprinkle more spices if required. 
7. Note: we had it for dessert with some graham cracker. and the next day we had them with pancakes! this recipe also has a nice side effect of spicing up the kitchen/room.

source material: various recipes found online. I didn't like any of them so ended up sort of mixing stuff I liked from various recipes and just baked it. here are some ideas: http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=apple+crisp%2C+ny+times

almost gone!

Roast chickpeas

This is a simple recipe I saw in Martha Stewart's Cocktail app (includes drinks and bar foods).

Preheat oven to 425F.

Drain one can of chickpeas.

Add a bit of oil and spices/seasoning of choice. I used cumin,salt,pepper,chili pepper mix, and nutmeg. Recipe calls for coriander, ginger, and hot paprika.

Bake for 30 minutes, shake chickpeas around from time to time.

Let cool and eat! Spicy and crunchy (great for a party snack or beer pairing).

Before pic

After pic

Next time I may try to use a paper towel to try off more of the moisture on the chickpeas. May also look into just keeping it simple with salt, pepper, and cumin.

C is for Chili

Read through a few chili recipes from the NYTimes Cooking App and settled on a mix of three of four recipes using roughly the ingredients below.

Ingredients 

makes about 4 servings. or 2 servings for a very hungry person

• jalapenos (for main chili and optional topping)
• red bell pepper
• small can of crushed tomatoes (should actually use large can)
• couple of table spoon of tomato sauce
• small onion
• cucumber (i had half left in the fridge so threw this in the mix.probably not required as part of any chili recipe)
• can of kidney beans (didn't know there were regular and dark kidney beans until I saw both in the store)
• many spices and flavorings (see spice section below): salt, pepper, cumin, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper flakes, hot sauce.
• garlic
• ginger
• lime (half juiced)
• cilantro and cheese (for topping after cooking)

Simmering

Prepare all ingredients and cut/dice as needed. Heat oil to bottom of pan, add garlic and ginger. Then add peppers, jalapenos, and onions to sautee until onion becomes translucent. Add everything else (except lime juice) and cook. Stir frequently and cook on low/med heat for 1 hour or more. be sure to taste for spice and salt. Don't worry if the mix looks a bit watery to start with. the stuff will cook down. Add lime juice to the last 15 min or so.

Topping and Garnishes

chop up cilantro (or parsley or some other fresh herb of choice) and slice up more jalapeno to add to the chili. I made rice so my dinner was chili over rice with cilantro/jalapeno/shredded Mexican cheese. Not pictured are some rosemary bread and semolina bread toasted and buttered. 

Spice line-up

This photo below includes too many spices than necessary. I'd like to think cumin, nutmeg, salt, garlic, and lime were the key ingredients. I also threw in this pepper mix which has cayenne, chipotle flakes, and paprika. Half a lime was juiced and put toward the latter half of the simmering process.

Notes for next time: 

• get the larger can of crushed tomatoes (48oz) instead of using a small can of diced tomatoes (14oz).
• try actually using a bit of clove.
• Time cooking of rice a bit closer to 2nd half of simmering. I cooked it too early and ended up worrying about rice getting cold. 
• try adding ground meat (beef or turkey)
• I think it was a bit much to have rice and bread (not pictured in photos). Will probably go for one or the other in the future. 

Also want to thank A., who showed me the best vegetarian chili and the secret of spices. and also to Manhattan Chili in GCT which has delicious chilis and great corn bread too. What's in your favorite chili recipe? Are you really particularly about the meat, beans, or specific spices?

Wonton origami

I was craving wontons the other day and decided to make my own. The ingredients I bought from store was vastly different from origami recipe but everything worked out just fine.

• Vegetarian friendly filling: spinach, scallion, ginger, garlic, carrot (and a bit of carrot leaf part), mushrooms. 
• Chop up vegetables and cook briefly with a bit of salt and chicken stock to make filling.
• Use a spoon to spoon a bit of filling unto a wonton skin (get them in fridge or frozen section of grocery store). dip finger in a cup of water and wet sides of wonton skin to close. Shaping optional.
• Cook wontons in boiling water for 3-5 min, taste one to make sure the skin is cooked through.
• Tip: eat by themselves or sprinkle with hot sauce/soy sauce/scallion. or have them in a soup noodle.
• Tip2: could be a fun group activity
• Tip 3: don't throw off the leafy part of a carrot bunch. chop off finely and they double as parsley in fragrance. 

folding extra wonton skins into origami bases. bottom left - preliminary base. bottom right - waterbomb base. top two are actual wontons.

side of roasted red potatoes, parsnip, carrot, and peppers. healthy bit of olive oil, italian seasoning, and a few garlic cloves. substitute any root vegetable or other roasting vegetable like eggplant, bell peppers, Brussels sprout, butternut squash, etc.

Bonus

silver spoon learned from Leyla Torres instructions:

http://www.origamispirit.com/2014/09/spoon/ 

Eggplant pizza

Earlier this week, I made some eggplant pizzas based on a recipe I saw from the Of a Kind mailing list: http://www.closetcooking.com/2013/09/eggplant-pizzas.html

Ingredients (serves 1-2 people)

• Ragu 7-herb tomato pasta sauce (or any pasta sauce / tomato sauce/pizza sauce you have handy or want to make)
• Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
• 2 small /medium eggplants, cut into round discs of 1/3 to 1/2in thick
• Sliced garlic
• Olive oil,salt,pepper, Italian seasoning
• Other toppings (all optional):Sliced mushrooms,grape tomatoes, peppers, sun dried tomatoes, etc. 
• Parmesan cheese topping (optional)
• Olive bread (optional)

Directions

1. preheat oven to 400F
2. slice / prep eggplant and veggies. I followed the recipe's direction to rub salt on eggplant and then wipe with paper towel (may not be necessary since the eggplants I picked are quite small).
3. Combine sliced eggplants with salt/pepper/olive oil/Italian seasoning to taste
4. put eggplant on baking tray in oven and roast for around 15 min.
5. Spoon out pasta or tomato sauce and spread on top of each slice of eggplant
6. Top eggplants with plenty of mozzarella
7. Add garlic (for more cooked garlic, you can put garlic in oven with eggplant in previous step), mushrooms, grapes.
8. Put everything back in oven for around 3 min. I didn't use broil as recipe suggested because I needed to cook the mushrooms a bit more. You can probably experiment with this.
9. Turn off oven, let tray cool off for a bit. Top off with Parmesan (optional) 
10. Place in plate and eat! (or you can add this "pizza" to slices of olive bread)

may not look as pretty as the original recipe's, but it's definitely delicious.

few days later I made it again with jalapeno and garlic and peppers. pretty tasty as a side for rice and curry (featuring Golden Curry Medium Hot).

Amazing pizza place with eggplant

I love Adrienne's on Stone Street and always order eggplant when I can. 

http://www.adriennespizzabarnyc.com/

Their old fashioned rectangular pizza (pictured below) feeds a party of four or a hungry party of three. I went recently with Linda and Ryan after a sketching session at Elevated Acres / Stone St. Our topping choices were half eggplant/peppers and half chicken/arugula. We cleaned up really well. I personally would have gone with sausage or pepperoni but chicken is ok too. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs

When I wasn't inspired to go out for food today, I decided to make a grocery run so I can make spaghetti and meatballs. Thanks J. for the inspiration. Pic of my proud accomplishment:

Meatball based on Rachel Ray recipe below:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/spaghetti-and-meatballs-recipe.html

My instructions (step by step)

1. Preheat oven to 425 F before making meatballs. 
2. I used about a pound of ground sirloin (exactly maybe .8lbs on the scale), 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs, 1/3-1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, crushed garlic, one egg (beaten well before adding in), crushed red peppers, dried parsley/basil herbs, and some olive oil. Mixed the stuff well first with a folk, then with greased hands next. Made around a dozen or so meatballs with hands. Pic of raw meatballs:
   
   
   
3. Put in oven on cookie sheet (I added greased aluminum foil) and cook for 10-12min. Check one with fork/knife when time is finished just to see how it turned out. 
4. While meatballs are in the oven, boil water to make pasta.
5. Pasta in my recipe is Barilla (I like Linguini Fini and Thin Spaghetti types), cooked according to box instructions (boil water, add salt, cook pasta for about 6-7min, always taste for right consistency before draining).
6. Pasta sauce is Ragu 7-herb tomato cooked with some water (from cooking pasta above), crushed garlic, and sundried tomato. Add cooked meatballs in sauce to coat well. I used 4-5 meatballs and saved the rest for snacks / food later this week.
7. Presentation: place drained pasta on plate, layer on meatballs and sauce, top off with fresh basil, black pepper, and Parmesan cheese. Eat!

Matzo Ball Soup

I was craving matzo ball soup and J. didn’t want to go to the local deli. As an alternative, I suggested that we make our own. Having known many people who consume matzo ball soups on a regular basis, J. claims that nobody makes them from scratch and that we may end up with a mess. Since I am always up for a challenge, I conducted some google searches on potential recipes. As I suspected, it really is not rocket science and we have most of the ingredients anyway.

Ingredients

• matzo (3 pieces, we happened to have the Manischewitz brand)
• 2 tbsp chicken broth
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• optional, to taste (Italian seasoning, dry parsley flakes, garlic powder, black pepper, whatever you like from the spice rack)
• more broth to cook the matzo balls in
• other soup ingredients like protein or vegetables (we used chicken sausages in this case)

Directions

1. ground up matzo into crumbles. we broke up the matzo sheets and put them inside a plastic freezer bag. then used the bottom of a pan to mash it up. 
2. in a mixing bowl, mix eggs with broth and oil.
3. add dry matzo meal bit by bit into the egg mixture
4. add optional spices and ingredients (I would add some fresh scallion or parsley if I had them). mix well with a fork
5. boil broth/soup base in a soup pot
6. once soup boils, wet hands a bit, scoop out some matzo mixture with spoon, shape into a round ball in hands, and then drop in boiling soup. repeat for more matzo balls. I made around 7 or 8 but they weren’t all evenly shaped. (and that’s what you call home-made)
   
   
7. add other soup ingredients
8. lower temperature so the soup is not boiling too much, but simmering. the matzo balls should float when they’re done. leave simmering for 15-20 min so they soak up the soup
9. place a couple of matzo balls and soup in a soup bowl and serve

Taste Note
Delicious! Glad I didn’t add extra salt because between the broth and sausages and salted matzo, the matzo balls were quite flavorful. Totally impressed by my resourcefulness but always offering helpful advice, J. says next time we can leave them cooking for 5 minutes more because the center is not 100% soaked through. I really think it’s a matter of preference. Besides, I won the challenge with flying colors, so am quite happy about it. On a side note, I may have caused the local deli to lose our business (at least the matzo ball soup, I doubt I’ll ever take them out of business since they have awesome pastrami sandwiches). Next time, I want to try more vegetables in the soup and fresh herbs in the matzo balls.

Reference:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/177/Matzo-Matzah-Ball-Soup

Steamed Tofu

Ever had chilled tofu at a Japanese restaurant for appetizer? Well, after I found this recipe, I swear I refuse to buy that dish again. Simple and affordable to make at home.

http://crystalbyblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/steam-tofu.html

Ingredient

• 1 box of silken tofu (I use the 山水 kind from supermarket)
• scallion (1 or 2 stalks)
• ginger (1 small slice, shredded)
• cilantro (optional, chopped)
• seaweed (1 small section, shredded)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp soy sauce

Directions

1. take silken tofu out of the container, cut into quarters (or fewer depending on size of the party) and place in plate.
2. chop white part of scallion, leave the green part for later
3. place chopped white part of scallion and ginger onto tofu, add seaweed if you’re using it
4. boil water in steamer. steam tofu for ten minutes
5. take out tofu, let cool, drain excess liquid from plate
6. sprinkle sesame oil and soy sauce on top of tofu
7. sprinkle chopped green part of scallion on top, add chopped cilantro if you are using it
8. chill and serve (or serve as is)

Superbowl Food Roundup

I may not be the biggest NFL fan but I still watch the superbowl every year. Before you get into a heated debate over the teams, the winner and even the commercials, let me just warn you that this entry is entirely about the food.

When you talk about the football, some food naturally come to mind: hot wings, chips, chili, ribs, more chicken, snacks, finger foods. You want to bring the platter around in front of the tv so you could best enjoy the game. I got my chicken recipe from beefolks which has an awesome selection of honey products and honey recipes.

Honey Mustard Chicken Nuggets (original recipe here)
sauce
-1/4 cup mustard (J and I used mostly brown mustard, with a bit of dijon)
-2 tbsp blueberry honey (we only had this on hand). You can probably use whatever you have in the house, I think a darker honey may work too (I personally think Killer Bee would be nice)
-2 tbsp apple juice (I had Mott on hand)
//combine above and mix well. divide in two dishes, one for dipping and one for coating raw chicken.
nuggets
-around 1 lb of chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes
-1/2 cup of crushed pretzels (or more...this is pretty time-consuming actually, although entertaining for the neighbors I'm sure)
directions
1. roll chicken cubes in the bowl containing sauce
2. coat sauced chicken cubes with crushed pretzels
3. bake at 375 F until middle is no longer pink. for 10-12 minutes
4. dip cooked chicken nuggets and eat!

prep station...or "assembly line" as J called it. you see there's the plate full of chicken, a bowl of the sauce, and some (not so) crushed pretzels.



Warning: the dipping sauce is insanely addictive. Once you have this you don't want to go back to the bottled honey-mustard sauce. Trust me, we tried it as a comparison. The recipe has a better version! J. says we can probably crush the pretzels more but we lacked tools! You can see from the photo that we still had pretzels sticks that are recognizable.

Finished product to the right. Sometimes I wish I had better food photography skills...oh well. Now you see why I rarely put up photos! (ok, most times I'm too hungry and the plate is empty when I remembered to take a photo.)





Snap Peas
Instead of the regular celery and carrot sticks, I made a veggie platter with red pepper and snap peas. You can probably just wash snow pea and eat it raw, but I like to just cook it a bit. Very simple instructions: boil water, dump in a bunch of snap peas (you can snap off the tips if you want), boil for a few minutes until it reaches the right texture (try it yourself! I like it crunchy) and brilliant green, run under cool water and drain. I have instructed J to make a mayo dipping sauce which came out better than mine. Basically, you mix mayo with a generous sprinkling of paprika and pepper (crushed peppercorn or powdered). You can dip almost about anything in this and love it. Try it out!

In the end, while we missed the National Anthem part and the entire second half, I have to say making the super bowl dinner was a fun experience. Cheers for having great food, even for non-NFL fans!

Peppercorn Chicken with Lemon Spinach

recipe from foodnetwork:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/peppercorn-chicken-with-lemon-spinach-recipe/index.html


Ingredients (dinner for two)
main dish:
boneless chicken breast (about 1 pound)
1 tablespoons dijon mustard (or eyeball it)


spice mix:
2 to 3 teaspoons coarsely ground mixed peppercorns
3/4 teaspoon dry rosemary
salt


sauce:
1 shallot, chopped or sliced
1/3 cup brandy or red wine
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon or more dry parsley
2 tbsp of mustard (to taste and to thicken the sauce)


directions:
1. preheat oven to 350 F
2. clean chicken breast, spread on mustard
3. sprinkle on spice mix, rub and pat gently to make sure seasoning sticks on
4. heat oil in pan, put in chicken breast, cook until golden brown on medium high heat, about 3 min on each side
5. take chicken from pan and put into oven safe container and bake for 10 minutes until done. save pan and remaining oil for sauce later.
6. Add chopped shallots to pan from earlier step.  Pan on medium high heat. Stir once a while and cook shallot until soft
7. Remove pan from heat, add red wine and chicken broth. Boil for about 2 min
8. Stir in mustard and parsley to the sauce
9. When chicken is done, put in a big plate. pour shallot sauce over it. 


spinach:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound spinach
pinch salt
1 thin slice of lemon


//1 tablespoon oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the garlic; cook about 30 seconds. Add the spinach, season with salt and cook until wilted; add the lemon. Serve with chicken dish above or whatever main entree you're cooking 


Notes:
We made a bit more sauce than we needed but it can be poured over other side dishes you may have. I really liked the taste of the shallot red wine sauce and the chicken by itself is already very savory. How can you go wrong with mustard, rosemary, and peppercorn? Upon reviewing the measurements I noticed that we may have put too much spice mix for the halved portion that we were making. Oh well. The spinach is green, tasty, and goes perfect with chicken. J. also made some tricolor tortellini with vodka sauce. 


Since J. and I only cooked for the two of us, I didn't get batches of fresh herbs. In the recipe it asks for fresh rosemary and parsley. I didn't think we'd use up the fresh herbs before they went bad. If you use dry herb, just add a bit more than the recipe. If you don't have mixed peppercorn you can probably use black pepper, it just may not have as much flavor as the mixed one. We got a small grinder bottle of four seasons mixed peppercorn (green pepper, black pepper, white pepper, and red berries) which I thought was fantastic. 


On the recipe page you will see people's reviews. I noticed that many people added sliced mushroom to the sauce which makes sense. A lot of people also made mashed potatoes or some potato side dish. Get creative and try a slight variation of the recipe!

Maple Fig Chicken

Ingredients
-chicken breast (I bought a pack that had each breast separated into several pieces)
-Maple Grove Farm's Maple Fig dressing
-a squeeze of lemon juice
-bread crumb (the kind I used had a garlic/herb mix)

Directions
1. Place chicken breast, a few tablespoon of dressing and a squeeze of lemon juice in a ziploc bag, shake it up and marinade for one hour or more in the fridge.
2. Take out chicken, dip each piece in bread crumb and place on baking sheet
3. Broil for 12 minutes on 400F (I used a toaster oven, so I had to leave the door open a crack to let out steam), flip chicken over halfway through cooking process.
4. Cut up a piece of chicken to see if it's done.
5. Serve by itself or with pasta!

Notes
So I didn't realize you can use dressing as marinade...well, a first time for everything right?! I looked at a chicken fingers recipe for inspiration. The chicken was sweet and fragrant, with a bit of savory from the bread crumbs. J. and I ate chicken with some tri color corkscrew pasta, which was very pretty. Then we had some St. Peter's Organic English Ale. [info here] I'm not sure how English Ale is supposed to taste but it was light. The bottle is quite a collector's item. If you're good you can find ways to use this work of art.

Tuna Pasta with Green Beans

I've always liked Rachel Ray's recipes and her show on Food Network. The other day I saw her talk show where she made this recipe. Watching a cooking show always inspires me to cook. She made it look so easy!

Website:

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/tuna-nicoise-casserole/

I made some modification to the recipe, namely, no anchovies and no "golden" brown casserole top in the oven (for presentation mostly anyway). Skipping the step makes the recipe so much quicker to prepare and eat!.

Ingredients (serves 2)

Salt

1/2 pound medium shell pasta (we used pipette)

1/6 pound skinny French green beans ("haricots verts"), cut in half (you can add more green beans if you want, I used about half a pound actually)

1/8 cup EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil (enough to coat bottom of pan generously)

1 clove garlic, finely chopped or grated

3/2 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup dry white wine (i used white cooking wine)

1/2 cup heavy cream (i used whole milk)

3/4 cups chicken stock

Ground black pepper

1 can of 5-6oz of tuna fish packed in oil, flaked (i used packed in water kind)

1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

a handful of pitted Niçoise olives, chopped (this is optional depending on what kind of olives you like and how much you can handle, etc. I used about 10....too many!)

Directions

[A. green beans]

1. boil water, drop beans in pot

2. cook for 3 min. drain and leave aside.

[B. pasta]

1. boil water, add salt, cook according to package directions (my box said 8 min)

2. drain pasta, leave it in pot

[C. sauce]

1. heat pan, add oil

2. add garlic, cook for a few mins.

3. add flour, cook for a minute.

4. add wine, reduce in half

5. stir in milk and stock, season with salt and pepper

6. bring liquid to bubble, and cook until thickened. about 5 min

[all together!]

1. stir in tuna (flaked) and green beans to the sauce, cook for a min.

2. add sauce to pot with pasta

3. add cheese and olives, stir, toss to combine

Note:

This is a great way to get your fish, dairy, grains, and veggie all in one go! I like how the crunchy green beans really soak up the creamy sauce and tuna flavors. I found that black olives did not work as well with the dish, so I'd recommend the green kind (we got assorted olives, some stuffed with cheese).

Banana Muffins

I've always liked banana nut bread. This recipe comes pretty close to that. I first saw the recipe on Food Network and thought it looked simple enough.

Ingredients (original recipe was for 18 muffins, I adjusted for 6)

-2 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed

[below in one bowl]

-1 cup flour

-1/3 tsp baking soda

-1/6 tsp baking powder

-1/3 tsp salt

-1/6 tsp cinnamon (or just eye it and pour)

-1/6 tsp nutmeg (basically a pinch or so)

[below in separate bowl]

-1/3 cup oil

-1 egg

-1/3 tsp vanilla extract

-2/3 cups sugar (I used about 1/2 cup actually, or at most 3/4, it's plenty sweet)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.

2. Combine the first bowl of dry ingredients

3. Combine the wet ingredients (oil, egg, vanilla) with sugar, beat well.

4. Add bananas in batches to wet ingredient bowl while you stir.

5. Add dry ingredients slowly to wet bowl, a batch at a time while you stir.

6. Mix well, but don't overmix.

7. Divide batter into 6 muffin cups.

8. Bake for around 25 min.

9. Cool muffins on rack before eating. You can frost them according to original recipe or just eat them as they are.

Notes:

The moist banana bits inside the muffin taste wonderful. I think this would make a yummy breakfast treat. Next time I may add some crushed walnuts and chocolate chips just for fun. I've never baked with oil before so the result surprised me. It was actually quite good! My previous blueberry muffin recipe used butter and milk.

Sweet and Sour Daikon Pickle

In the summer sometimes I need a cold and refreshing appetizer to go with my meal. Daikon pickle should be familiar to those who have visited Bon Chon (Korean Fried Chicken) before. They usually give a side dish of those pickles.

The recipe below is from NY Times. Feel free to adjust the vinegar and sugar as needed.

Ingredients

-daikon (one medium size, peeled and cut into whatever shape you like, I did rectangular strips)

-1 tsp salt

-2 tsp sugar + 1/2 cup sugar (in separate measuring devices)

-1+1/4 cup of white rice vinegar (or regular white vinegar)

Directions

1. Rub daikon strips with 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp sugar. Knead vigorously until you get some water out of them. I recomend a plastic sandwich bag to cover your hand so you don't get too much salt/sugar on you.

2. Wash daikon gently to get rid of salt/sugar. drain well. Place them in a big bowl/dish.

3. Combine 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 1/4 cup of vinegar, and 1 cup of lukewarm water. Stir well to dissolve sugar.

4. Pour mix over daikon. Cover dish and let sit for at least 1 hour before refridgerating.

5. Drain liquid before eating. Serve cold.

Notes: I didn't use carrots as directed by the recipe. You can obviously try it out with carrot and other pickel friendly recipe. This isn't a salty pickle, more of a sweet and sour pickle.

Pasta in a Can

Looking for a change from your normal tomato based pasta sauce? Have too many cans of soup sitting at home? Try this recipe! Inspired by my cousin K. I like using beef soup because the soup by itself tends to be salty, but with pasta it's just right.

Ingredients

-dry pasta (I used the Barilla thin spaghetti)

-salt

-can of soup (I used Progresso beef roast with vegetables), skim off the fat on top with a spoon

-mushrooms and/or other fresh veggies (optional) cut into chunks

-Italian seasoning

-pepper

-cheese topping (optional)

Directions

1. Boil water in pot, add some salt.

2. Cook pasta according to package direction, minus a few minutes. i.e. my pack says 6-7 min, I took them out to drain after 5 minutes.

3. In another pot (or same one after you take out pasta), heat up the can of soup.

4. Place pasta inside soup and cook for a few minutes. Add mushrooms and vegetables and Italian seasoning.

5. Try the pasta to make sure it's the right consistency for you. Cook soup until most of the water evaporates, leaving a nice sauce at the bottom.

6. Serve with pepper and cheese!

Notes:

I guess if you're not worried about overstarching your soup, you can cook dry pasta right in it for 6-7 minutes. When I was looking up the brand of pasta and soup that I used, I found a bunch of recipes! Check them out below.

Other resources:

Progresso Recipes http://www.progressofoods.com/?View=RecipeIdeas/SignatureRecipes

Barilla Sauce Pairing http://www.barillaus.com/home/Pages/Perfect_Pairing.aspx

Barilla Videos http://www.barillaus.com/home/Pages/Video_Cooking_Tips.aspx

Barilla Recipes http://www.barillaus.com/home/Pages/recipes__cooking.aspx

Steamed Whole Fish

Cooking fish is always a big deal in my family when it comes to special occasions. There was no special occasion today. I just wanted some fresh fish. Luckily, I live close to a few markets with fresh fish. Now, this is kind of embarrassing, but I didn't know what kind of fish I bought until later. My fish vocabulary is very limited in both Chinese and English. After I cooked it, ate it, and decided to blog, I looked up the fish.

According to this site, I believe I had a trout. Update: apparently it was a sea bass. Anyhow, the method is mostly Chinese (video from this site), with one twist. One day I was in the cookbook aisle of the library and I just happened to find a book on cooking fish. In the book was a recipe that was either baking or steaming a whole fish. Anyway, they used lemon slices and various herbs. So today I wanted to use a bit of lemon too just to see what the result is.

Ingredients

-one fresh whole fish, around a pound, scaled and gutted (thankfully the fish cleaner does this for me). Always use fresh fish for steaming. If your fish isn't fresh try a different fish recipe (frying works on everything usually).

-salt

-pepper

-rice wine, or some other cooking wine

-scallion (one or two whole scallion and a bunch shredded)

-2 or 3 lemon (my own twist!, this is optional)

- ginger, some slices, some julienned

[below for oil topping]

-oil (optional, I skipped this step)

[below for sauce]

-soy sauce

-1/2 tbsp sugar (to taste)

-salt

-pepper

-a few tbsp water

Directions

1. Clean fish when you get home, scrape off any scales that the store person may have missed.

2. Cut 2 or 3 slits into both side of the fish, this helps flavor and steam process

3. Rub salt on both side of the fish, as well as inside. Repeat with pepper. Then repeat with a bit of rice wine. Let sit for a while.

4. Fill inside of fish with ginger slices, scallion pieces, and lemon slice halves.

5. Cut whole scallion in two, put a few of these halves on a large plate/dish (big enough for whole fish), then put the fish on top. The scallions will help fish steam since it gives a bit of space under the fish.

6. Get your steamer ready. I use a regular pan with a steamer layer. Fill bottom with water and turn on the heat. Put plate with fish inside steamer. Cover.

7. When water boils, turn heat to medium, steam around 6-7 minutes or more depending on thickness of fish.

- - -

Finishing and Presentation!

1. While the fish is steaming, mix ingredients for sauce.

2. After fish finishes steaming, take it out of the steamer. Top with shredded scallion and ginger.

3. (optional) Heat oil in a pan, pour on top of fish

4. Heat sauce in a pan, pour sauce all over fish

Note: So I discovered that while lemon slices didn't do too much for fish (except maybe neutralize odors for kitchen?), when it combined with the sauce later, the sauce took on a citrus flavor. Take it as a kind of hot and sour fish soup as you will. Delicious! The bottom side of fish got a bit of lemon on it, which is pretty cool.

Resources:

Guide to cooking live fish http://tipnut.com/cooking-fish/

ID edible fish http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Fish/Types%20of%20Fish.htm

Steam fish recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ming-tsai/whole-steamed-fish-recipe/index.html

Cola Ribs

Craving something sweet and meaty? Have some cola sitting around the house? Try this recipe.

Watch the instructional video here (note, it's in Chinese, but you can take a look to see what the different steps should look like)

Ingredients

-short ribs (I used about a pound, which was about 5-6 ribs)

-1~1.5 cups of cola (enough to cover the ribs when you cook them)

-cooking oil (about half inch deep)

-sliced ginger

-pinch of salt

-1 tbsp sugar (optional)

-1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, or other cooking wine (I used Chinese vinegar, you can probably use a bit of whatever is in the house)

-2 tbsp cooking wine

-scallion (optional)

-minced or sliced garlic

-chicken stock/flavoring (optional)

Directions

1. First cut the ribs into halves, if this is difficult you can skip the step.

2. Wash ribs and then put them in a pot of water on high heat.

3. When water boils, take pot off of the stove, wash ribs clean in another bowl of cold water.

4. Heat oil in pan/wok, put one star anise (if you have it) in the oil. I didn't have star anise so I just put some Chinese spice mix (5 spice, I think star anise is included). Also add ginger slices.

5. Once you get the spices and oil going, add the ribs (drain them carefully and dab with paper towel before you add them to hot oil!). Add rice wine and some salt. Stir often, for around 5 minutes, until ribs start to brown. Be careful and don't burn them.

6. After ribs start to brown, pour out excess oil from pan, leaving just a bit to keep the pan oiled.

7. Add cola to pan, sugar (if you have a sweet tooth), vinegar, and a bit of chicken stock/flavoring

8. After cola stock boils, cover the pan for another 5 minutes (or longer if you want thicker sauce).

9. Add scallion and garlic, stir around a bit more, and turn off the heat.

Notes:

I have seen many cola rib recipes that take too long (baking, grilling, etc) but this one seems to do the trick nicely. I love how sweet and juicy the meat is. Fairly simple to do too.

Here are the other reipes if you're curious.

Baking: http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Cook-Short-Ribs-in-Cola-126604602

Grilling: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bbq-with-bobby-flay/cola-ribs-recipe/index.html