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.

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/ 

Origami Holidays and High Line in the Snow

Our friend Talo Kawasaki created a shadow box Three Kings installation for a restaurant called El Quinto Pino (in Chelsea). A group of us attended the event featuring the beautiful exhibit. Food and bubbly was also provided, definitely try the mushroom croquette when you’re back!

The snowman above is made of three rose auditoriums (designed by our friend Uyen and folded by Talo).

Since it was snowing that day and the High Line was a block or two away, Linda and I braved the snow to see NYC’s winter wonderland! I never paid much attention to the benches but their colors sure stand out!

I found blue TANT (a type of origami paper, comes in mono color with plenty of variations) colored building! How awesome. 

For food afterwards, Linda and I visited yet another Westville and ordered these four market sides with blackened chicken and salmon. Brussel sprouts, fennel, butternut squash, and plantains.  Tried soy chai latte (thumbs up) at Whole Foods and liked it, even though I always go for the almond latte. If you are adventurous, you can get latte with the following types of milk at Whole Foods: regular cow milk, soy, almond, and rice.

30 Days of Queens: Day Three – Payag

I attempted two Meet Up outings in one day. First was the origami group [previous entry], second one was a foodie get together in Queens Filipino restaurant Payag.

Didn’t get a chance to take photos because I was too busy eating and chatting with all the cool new people. Funny that after all these years of living in Queens, I’ve never been to the 52nd St. Stop. The area actually looks nice, with a park and the restaurant etc. I’m going to miss all the ethnic foods in Queens (after all, they say the best international/diversity is around Queens).

Payag
51-34 Roosevelt Ave
Woodside, NY 11377
http://www.yelp.com/biz/payag-woodside

The best dish was Kare-Kare, a curry peanut beef stew. If you go with a small group I recommend getting this and maybe a vegetable dish. The cheesy mussels were also tasty to get as appetizers. The menu is really extensive so I think everyone can find something they like. I can’t seem to find the menu online so I suppose I’ll have to use yelp as reference.

I ordered a squid dish cooked in squid ink that tasted great but looked a bit scary. In the past I’ve had squid ink dishes from Spanish restaurants before, but don’t remember it being this dark! The other dish I ordered was a vegetable medley, including bitter melon, okra, eggplant, and bell papers. I couldn’t get enough of it. Other dishes we tried were pork and crepe with minced meat. The pork was on a sizzling plate and very spiced up and flavorful. Everything goes amazing with rice.

I didn’t order any fancy drinks but they do have an impressive drink list. I like how their regular tap water has lemon and cucumber slices in them. I do that with my own water at home sometimes to add additional flavor.

Last but not least, awesome service must be noted for everyone who wants to try the place. Our waiter was attentive and gave a brief explanation of all the background/overview of the dishes and even travel trips for Philippines.

Thanksgiving Magic

I've gone over to J's for thanksgiving for a few years but always managed to miss the prep stage of the big feast. This year I finally found an opportunity to participate in this ritual and wanted to write down a few key notes. Maybe next year I will remember to take photos.
Corn Bread
Since the entire family liked this year's corn bread better, I'm going to give J credit for mixing the ingredients. The wet ingredients went first (sour cream, canned corn, whisked eggs, etc), then the cornmeal were stirred in. Lastly was the melted butter (all two sticks of it, but at least the sour cream was non-fact...). We waited for the butter because we didn't want the hot butter to cook the raw eggs.

Potato/Sweet Potato
Boil them in giant pots of water until soft/done. Let cool and soak in cold water after discarding the hot water. This process will help the skin come off easier. I used a knife to make a few cuts on the surface then just use my fingers to kind of peel off. For mashing, J's family has a few tools to help which turns them into small strings. It reminds me of a pasta machine or something, I'm not sure what the real name is. To season mashed potatoes, add salt/pepper/garlic. For the sweet potatoes, mix well with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and some tbsp of orange juice concentrate. We put them into two separate baking dishes, one with candied pecans on top and another with marshmallows. Cover them for baking right before the dinner.

Zucchini Quiche
Peel the zucchini first, but don't worry about not being perfect since a little green actually makes the resulting quiche more colorful. Tip for grating zucchini is to keep the end for easy handling instead of chopping it off. L liked the hot version of this and I agree with her. At dinner the cold and warm versions were served.

TurkeyThe main event. R always gets a fresh turkey and therefore it doesn't take as long to cook. I didn't get involved in this as much since it follows a recipe and cooking time. I just have to add that cranberry sauce (homemade) goes so well with turkey that I don't understand people who go without it.

Dessert
Two hours after dinner, assorted teas are served with piles of dessert. J actually managed to survive the lines at Mr. Todd's [link] and got the apple pie and blueberry pie.

Tips for the cooking experience:
Sit down, relax, and put on some music. Make it a group activity. Since we had a can of orange concentrate left over, I made orange coke. You can also make orange mix drinks and get creative.
Thanksgiving Wisdom:
1) Q - Why do we make these dishes only during thanksgiving? The recipes are easy enough for everyday dishes.
A - It's more special if we only make them on thanksgiving.
2) Order pizza the night you're prepping all the dishes. You don't want to think too much about food while you have to peel potatoes and other stuff. Since J's household always start the prep/cooking process on Wed (except the turkey and the last bit of marshmallow sweet potatoes), Thurs is relatively stress free with only the turkey to mind. We had time to play board games (Carcassonne, blokus, etc) and watch TV.

Vegetable Tales

No, this is not an entry about the movie Veggie Tales. I was surfing twitter and came upon @summertomato which then led me to her blog and an article about how our parents’ generation cooked vegetables. According to the article, many of our parents favored convenience in forms of canned/frozen/prepared vegetables, so it’s no wonder many of us grow up really hating it. That is, until we venture into our own kitchens making amazing dishes using organic farm market vegetables.

I was lucky enough to be exposed to a wide variety of fresh vegetables thanks to my family who didn’t believe in canned/frozen/prepared vegetables. Ever since I was little, I had to help my parents clean and pick vegetables. (Not everything came in crispy clean and free of dirt in shiny plastic bags!) And I was always taught to get used to some vegetables/herbs that had strong flavors that kids didn’t typically enjoy: spinach, cilantro, chive. My parents always salted vegetables when they cooked.

The article made me understand why some of my friends are so turned off by all sorts of vegetables. Maybe they haven’t grown up eating the food I’ve had. If you’re still a non-believer though, I suggest going to the best Chinese/Korean restaurants you know and try out their vegetable dishes. Once I overheard someone on the train raving about Chinese food. She said the celery/pork stir-fry made her see celery in a totally different light. What used to be crunchy and bland celery absorbed some of the meat flavors and turned out delicious. Be creative and you’ll find use for those awesome vegetables!

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!

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.

Green and Purple

Miso sauce/dressing recipe from link. 

//ingredients:

-grated ginger

-garlic, mashed or chopped fined

-honey (recipe used maple syrup, which I didn't have)

-lemon juice

-Chinese rice wine 

-white miso

//directions:

Just mix above together (I didn't include ratio because it's really to taste) then toss with salad or pour onto cooked greens/veggies. I used cooked Chinese mustard greens. This sauce is like the salad dressing a lot of Japanese places have in their appetizer salad. Yay for miso.

Sweet and Sour Flavored Eggplant from link. 

//ingredients:

-2 eggplants

-tbsp salt 

-tbsp or more sugar

-tbsp or more of chicken stock (i didn't have dashi)

-tbsp rice vinegar

-oil for frying

-sesame oil (optional, for final presentation)

//directions:

1. cut eggplant into small chunks, soak in salt water while preparing for sauce. 

2. mix sugar, stock, and rice vinegar together, set aside.

3. drain eggplants, heat up oil in pan and stir fry eggplant

4. After a few min., pour sauce mixture into pan. let simmer for a few minutes until liquid is almost gone.

5. Serve with a bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds if desired. otherwise it's good as is. 

Jicama

The funny thing about growing up speaking a different language is that you don't always know some food names in English until you visit a supermarket that has bi-lingual labels. For example, I've always known the Jicama root by a different name: 凉薯.

Just yesterday I went to the supermarket with mom and asked whether the jicama roots were indeed the same roots that I liked when I was little. Granted, I didn't read the label (can't remember if the english name was there or not). She said yes and told me to peel the root before eating it raw. I also had the option to dice it and cook it like any other root vegetable (maybe like daikon). After we paid for the groceries, I noticed the receipt had one item that sounded very foreign: jicama. Thanks to wiki, I quickly learned a new word for something I've always known.

Then it dawned on me that I have had it in salads but never knew it was the same thing from childhood because I didn't realize people outside of China actually ate it. Clearly people in Mexico have been eating it for a long time though. Silly me. 

I don't really have any recipes with jicamas. but I encourage everyone to try it out because it's a cool root. Its texture reminds me of a pear or daikon. It tastes slightly sweet, but not too much. I imagine it would work well in salads or perhaps as a refreshing snack.

Roasting Squashes

A few weeks ago I roasted some acorn squash and made good use of it as a side and later for a salad. Today I roasted a butternut squash which used a pretty similar recipe.

Ingredients

//1 butternut squash (halved and seeds removed)

//enough melted butter to rub the inside of the squash. I used a little bit less than 1 tbsp

//2 tbsp of brown sugar (or thereabouts, depending on how much you want)

//pinch salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F

2. (should have made some criss cross patterns with knife but forgot to.) Rub inside of squash with butter, brown sugar, and sprinkle with pinch of salt and pepper

3. Place squash halves in baking tray, with 1/2 inch of water or so to prevent burning the skin. 

4. Bake for 50 min or so until soft 

5. Cool tray before cutting acorn squash into cubes

6. Serve as a side or use in salad

Note

//my cafeteria has really good roasted squashes, including pumpkin and butternut squash. I think most of them can be made into roasts or soups. The general rule of thumb is to oil/butter the inside and rub with brown sugar and spices (optional) or sometimes maple syrup. Put it in the oven at 400 F for 50 min to 1 hr. until soft/brown. With soups you probably just food process cubes and add cream/milk. Since I don't have a food processor I will stick to roasts. Very tasty and easy not to mention pretty cheap. Try it today!

Weekend Kitchen Update

Lotus Root in Ginger Honey Syrup

//ingredients

-lotus root (sliced cross sectionally)

-1 medium sized carrot (halved then cut into diagonal chunks)

-ginger (thinly shredded into matchstick size)

-honey

-water

//directions

1. Place lotus and carrot in a container and steam for 20 min (medium heat, don't let the water boil too much, just a nice rumbling bubbling). If you want your lotus to be softer you can steam for longer. I like mine a bit crunchy.

2. While the veggies are steaming, make honey ginger syrup by melting honey (I used about 2-3 tablespoons, you can use as much as you want) into hot water and then mixing in the ginger. Alternatively you can boil water in a pot and put the ginger and honey in it (this method will produce stronger syrup because the ginger is cooked.) 

3. After the veggies have finished steaming, pour the syrup on top and toss gently. 

4. You can eat it as is or cool it and refridgerate it overnight and serve cold.

5. Makes for a refreshing sidedish (if you like sweets) or a delightful dessert

note: the lotus root dish at Joe's Shanghai actually inspired this recipe.

Baked Acorn Squash

//ingredients

-one small acorn squash (wiki entry)

-vegetable oil (I used olive oil. the original recipe called for butter) 

-honey (or maple syrup)

-brown sugar

-cinnamon

-nutmeg

-clove

//directions

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. cut acorn squash in half (from stem to bottom)

3.  rub inside with oil. rub well with honey, sugar, and spices. (load on sugar and cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg and clove)

4. put acorn squash halves (cut side up) in a baking tray with at least 1/4 inch of water (prevents skin from burning

5. bake for an hour or more until top is brown.

6. Cool on a rack before serving.

7. Cut with knife and separate squash from skin. Serve.

note: I actually don't know how you're supposed to serve it. Once you cool the squash maybe you can scoop with spoon too. I just cut out sections and eat.  

Fresh tomatoes

I really like eating tomatoes, raw, cooked, diced, sliced, on my burger, on my pizza, on my salsa. They are really easy to prepare too.

Here's a spring/summer recipe for days when you need something fresh and sweet to offset the greasy dinner or maybe as a midday snack. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo. Always too eager to eat...

ingredients (makes 1 serving)
-1 large tomato or 2 plum tomatoes
-1 small bunch of fresh cilantro or basil (I love both, just don't mix the two)
-1 tablespoon or so of lemon or lime juice (or more, depending on your preference)
-1 tablespoon honey (I guess this could be optional, but it's so good!)

directions
1. dice tomatoes and chop up cilantro or basil into bits
2. mix well with lemon juice
3. drip honey into mixture
4. mix again, then serve

notes:
colorful, fragrant, sweet, tart, and oh so good for you! You can eat this alone or eat it with bread. I actually tried it on a croissant once and it was quite nice.

Veggie Delight from Shanghai Style Recipe Book

3 Jades (三色玉): sweet peas, lily bulb, and pear

Tropical Snow (夏季冰雪): orange juice wintermelon

I love Chinese dishes because they have such artistic names. So in this entry I have decided to create some myself.

Both recipes were from a Shanghainese cuisine recipe book I bought in Shanghai. At first I bought it because it had some of my favorite dishes from Shanghai: Crystal Shrimp (水晶虾), Dongpo Pork (东坡肉), Xiaolongbao (小笼包), Crab Meatball (蟹粉狮子头), and Sweet and Sour Ribs (糖醋排骨). Later I realized it's easier to order those dishes at a restaurant since they're way too difficult to make. Lucky for me, good Shanghainese food is not hard to find in Flushing. Anyhow, I decided to occasionally explore other recipes in the book.

The problem of posting after I've made the dishes a few days is that: I lack the energy to post the ingredients and directions. I also just can't remember what alterations I've made with the recipe. I think it's something like this.

3 Jades:
1. prepare lily bulb by peeling into layers.
2. cut sweet peas into halves
3. cube pears (squeeze lemon juice on it to prevent from coloring)
4. Add all to boiling water for a min. and drain immediately.
5. heat up a bit of veggie oil in a pan.
6. lightly stir fry and add salt and chicken stock (optional) to taste.

Tropical Snow:
1. cut winter melon into thin rectangular pieces
2. in a bowl, mix orange juice (a lot), 1 spoonful of vinegar (white is best, but any will do), and 3 spoonfuls of sugar.
3. Cook melon pieces in boiling water until somewhat translucent.
4. drain and place into cold water. drain again
5. place melon pieces in mixture of OJ and etc.
6. Cover and freeze for two hours
7. It's more like dessert for a summer. But tasty nonetheless. Try it if you get sick of making winter melon soup.