Monday, August 30, 2010

Bruschetta

This is actually a place-holding post. I can't seem to access the greenonioneater blog at the moment, and I'm hoping greenonioneater-san will be kind enough to post here her recipe for bruschetta. Thanks in advance.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

New Foods (left coast edition)

Lemon Verbena-san had a good idea there, so since I haven't had the energy to make any reportable recipes lately, I'm going to steal it. Here are three things we've tried recently:

1) Brianna's Champagne Caper Vinaigrette salad dressing. Brianna's and Newman's are the two brands of dressing we favor; Brianna's because they're all excellent, and Newman's because they make some standard flavors that Brianna's doesn't. This flavor seems to be new, or at least we hadn't seen it before. It's creamier than most vinaigrettes, with a nice spicy kick. A winner.

2) Sierra Nevada Porter & Spicy Brown Mustard. Inspired by Greenonioneater-san, I think, raving about brown mustards, I picked this one up. This makes it sound like it was Cooking with Booze week at our house, which it wasn't... Anyway, this is pretty good. I haven't been into brown mustards for quite a while, but this has a more interesting, complex taste than I remember Gulden's having. I'd be curious to hear from a connoisseur.

3) Sun-dried tomatoes, bottled. This was kind of a bust, not because they don't taste good, but because I don't know what to do with them. I like sun-dried tomato alfredo pasta sauce, the kind that comes ready made in a jar, and I figured maybe putting actual sun-dried etc in a straight alfredo sauce would be tastier, but what I did wasn't. I think it's because I just don't know what I'm doing with them. Anybody have any suggestions as to how to actually use a jar of sun-dried tomatoes?

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

New Food! Yay! (second installment)

I've had five new foods recently, some of which were pretty interesting:

1. Masa's miso sesame dressing (Glynne's recommendation), which I had on Glynne's cabbage salad. I highly recommend both the salad recipe and the dressing.
2. Sylvia's honey mustard--not my favorite, to be honest. I like my honey mustard on the spicy side, and this one is fairly sweet and a bit vinegary for me.
3. Beecher's Marco Polo cheese (tastes like a jack with peppercorns). This is by the same people who make that No Woman jerk cheese Glynne recommended, and I like this one, too. The peppercorns are good without overwhelming the cheese.
4. Black spaghetti from Target. It's black because it's made with squid ink (which I realized later is probably not very vegetarian, oops). To me, it tastes like regular white spaghetti, but it stays totally black even when you cook it so it looks really dramatic.

5. Mahjoub family harissa sauce, which I ordered from http://www.thespicehouse.com
I have this one Moroccan-style soup recipe (which I will post sometime) which uses harissa, but there's no good place to get it around here. Many Lands down in Provo has had one brand in the past that I didn't like much, and when I made my own it didn't turn out that great. But this stuff is really good, though fairly spicy. The main spices in harissa, from what I can tell, are garlic, coriander, and caraway, and this brand has those in a base of olive oil, pimentos, and sundried tomatoes. So it has this great sweet-and-spicy thing going on that makes me want to experiment with it in other recipes. I think I'll try adding it to bruschetta one of these days. Yum.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

hoisin beef with soybeans and noodles

i randomly got this recipe from eatingwell.com. we had it for dinner tonight and it was AWESOME.

ingredients:
8 oz. noodles (i used buckwheat noodles, but whole wheat spaghetti would do)
3 tbs lime juice
3 tbs hoisin sauce
2 tsp chili-garlic sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp sesame oil
8 oz. flank steak, thinly sliced (trim the fat off)
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
10 oz. frozen shelled soybeans, thawed
1 tbs fresh minced ginger (or not fresh as the case may be)
cilantro

preparation:
prepare noodles according to package directions. drain.

whisk together lime juice, hoisin sauce, chili-garlic sauce, and cornstarch. save.

heat oil over med-high heat. add steak and cook until just cooked through. transfer steak to a plate. add bell pepper to the meat juices and cook, stirring, for about a minute. add soybeans and cook through, about 2 minutes. (in my case, the soybeans were still frozen, so i did them first and then the pepper) stir in the sauce, and the beef. cook, stirring, about 1 minute. add noodles, toss. sprinkle cilantro on top.


vegetarian note: i think this would taste equally good sans beef, but with more peppers...also seems like it would be a good candidate for tempeh or seitan.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Chili

This is one of our favorite recipes. Its official title is Chili Sin Carne, but we usually call it chili stew because of all the veggies. As you can see, it makes a lot of soup, enough for a solid dinner for two and lunch for two the next day. It takes a little while because of all the chopping, but in my world, it's totally worth the effort. It's slightly-but-not-too-spicy the way it's written, but if you want to unspice it just leave out the red pepper flakes.

Chili Stew

2 Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, diced (1 ½ cups)
2 carrots, diced (1 cup)
1 small bell pepper, diced (1 cup)
4 cloves garlic, minced (4 tsp)
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes (not drained)
1 15-oz can black beans, drained
1 15-oz can kidney beans, drained
1 12-oz package Morningstar soy crumbles (or cook up the same amount of real meat)
2 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs plus 1 tsp cumin
1 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes (to taste)
10 ounces frozen corn

1.Heat oil in large pot on medium-high. Add onion and saute 2 minutes. Add carrots and bell pepper and saute 2 more minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 more minute.
2.Add everything else except corn, add a cup or so of water, and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3.Add corn, add a little water if the chili is too thick for you, and simmer 10 more minutes.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The results of the new foods

Squash Blossoms: They are incredible. The flavor is best described as delicately zucchini-like. Since they are flowers, they have a nice, thin texture that really works well fried. I looked up a lot a recipes and tried to figure out the easiest way to deal with them and get a good concept of their taste. This is what I did:

9 whole squash blossoms, rinsed and patted dry
corn starch for dredging
1/2 cup olive oil
salt
garlic powder

I dredged the blossoms in the corn starch and just pan fried them until they got a light golden brown (and crisped up). I sprinkled a little salt and later a tiny bit of garlic powder. THEY WERE AWESOME!!!! Why can't I eat these forever? Seriously, why?!?!

DRAGON FRUIT: Ummmmm, yeah it doesn't taste like anything. It's beautiful and had the texture of a soft kiwi but it really just didn't taste like anything. It didn't even really smell like anything.

TOFU: I made fried tofu (with a cornstarch coating) and dipped them in a hoisin/soy sauce. Pretty good :) Not my new favorite food ever but pretty good.

Cactus Pears are yet to come.... Also to come, pictures!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Fennel

Fennel is something that I have come to be quite fond of over the course of the last year. Scott is the one who got me into it and this is our favorite way to make it:

2-3 fennel bulbs sliced 1/2 inch thick
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
salt
fresh cracked pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup grated parmesan (preferably the real kind as opposed to the stuff in the green plastic shaker)
the fennel leaves, shredded (the stuff that looks like fresh dill)

Make sure you cut off all the green stalk stuff from the fennel bulbs. Layer the slices in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the cheese and the fennel leaves (the dill stuff) and put it back into the oven until the cheese browns a little (about 5 min.). Allow to cool a bit and serve!

I fed this to Cherilyn, Lorien, and Mike before and they all seemed to think it was alright :)

Dhal

Okay here is the deal with dhal. I looked for a really long time to find a decent recipe a few years ago. What I came up with and what I generally use is a really pared down and decent yellow dhal recipe.

what you need:
-yellow dal (split channa/dried tiny little chickpeas split)
-salt
-chilies
-onion of some kind
-garlic
-various spices to your liking
-a little oil
~I recommend a little garam masala and maybe some coriander
-A BLENDER this is really important
-A MESH COLANDER equally important. It doesn't have to be mesh but the holes need to be tiny

Ok. Soak your channa for like 2 hours so it gets a lot softer. Throw it in a pot with enough water to cover it and all the spices you are going to use (including the onion etc) and bring it to a boil. Simmer it until the channa will smoosh on the side of the pot when pressed gently with a spoon. Drain your channa with the colander and transfer it directly into the blender. Blend it and add a little oil to your liking. Adjust the spices at this point. You can make it as utterly bland or as overwhelmingly spicy as you like. The main point of this recipe is that it gives you the right consistency for dhal without a pressure cooker. Anyways. This is what I do when I want dhal. It is decent, basic, and reliable. The alternative recipes out there seem to involve pressure cookers and they take forever.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Dhal Recipes

So, Taryn's probably the Indian food expert here so this question might be just for her, but I'd love to hear from anyone:

I like dhal, but I only have one recipe (for red lentil dhal) and I'd love more. So if anyone has good recipes or tips I would love to try them. I googled for recipes, of course, but if anyone has recipes they've already tried that's always better. Bonus points for crockpot recipes.

Crazy New Food

Partially because Joanna inspired me and partly because when opportunitty knocks, you have to answer, I got a few crazy new food items this weekend!

1st weird item: fresh squash blossoms from the farmer's market. I have wanted to try these for years but have never found them. So, here goes!

2nd weird item: A dragon fruit. I have never eaten dragon fruit and I am going to when I get home from work today. Who knows? Maybe it is my super-favorite food that I don't even know I love yet!

3rd weird item: Cactus pears. I bought two fresh cactus pears. I have had prickly pear jam and camdy and I really quite like pickled nopales, but a fresh prickly pear will be a new experience.

4th weird item: Tofu. I know this is really not a weird one for most people but it is for me. I have texture issues with it but really feel like I need to experiement and open the door to new and healthier proteins in my diet :) Fried tofu will hopefully be awesome (albeit not that healthy).

Pictures of my culinary adventures will follow...

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

New Food! Yay!

So normally we're pretty thrifty at our house, but there are two things I can't resist: new and exciting books and new and exciting food. I've curbed the book problem by (mostly) staying out of bookstores unless I'm really out of new books, but I still go grocery shopping once or twice a week. (Once if I remember everything the first time, twice if I don't). So while walking the aisles picking up things I actually need, I usually find one or two things I don't need but suddenly really want.

I've decided to justify my zest for new flavors by starting a semi-regular feature based on what I buy and whether it tastes good. Everyone else is welcome to record their new and exciting purchases in the comments or as totally separate posts or features. Obviously. ;)

This first “New Food! Yay!” will be mostly inspired by the excellent cheese suggestions and my resulting indulgences, but I don't really buy new and exciting cheese every week. It just seems like that lately.

I actually bought seven new things this week and last, but I've only tried six so far. Here they are:
1.Beehive Cheese Cajun Cheddar—this is now hands-down my favorite Beehive cheese. The cheddar flavor really works with the cajun spices to give you a nice rich flavor with a nice heat left behind. But if you're not into spicy I'd skip this one.

2.No Woman jerk cheese. This was Glynne's recommendation, and Harmon's had a nice little piece for sale. He's spot on about the complex flavor. There's definitely a strong jack vibe with a smoky and surprisingly sweet taste to it. Very enjoyable.

3.Da Vinci Goa from Holland (this is what is says on the package), a nice mild cheese with tomato, olives, and herbs mixed into it. It's got a nice savory flavor without being spicy.

4.Havarti Cream Dill from Denmark. This is exactly what it sounds like—some bites seem a little overwhelmed by dill, and some bites seem like the perfect blend of mild, slightly acid havarti with bright dill flavor.

5.Private Selection Arrabiata pasta sauce—I mostly hate jarred/canned pasta sauces because they're way too sweet for me, but for various reasons I've been looking for a jarred sauce I can agree with. I think this one might be it—it's nice and spicy and thin-enough-but-not-too-thin, and even though we had it more or less plain this time I think it would be great for adding my own veggies and such. Private Selection is actually Kroger, so I don't know where-all sells Kroger stuff where any of you live (if anyone does), but that's where you'd find this.

6.Archer Farms (Target) sesame orange dressing—we actually bought this because I'm going to make Glynne's cabbage salad thing and we didn't have any real sesame dressing on hand. I had some on regular salad last night and it was quite nice. Sometimes I find sesame stuff too bitter, but the orange sweetness offsets that nicely. We actually found the Masa's brand that Glynne recommended but I haven't tried it yet, so I can't tell you if I like it better than the Target one. So I'll have to save that one for next time.

So this is a lot more new stuff than I get in a normal week. This is even slightly much for the two weeks I'm covering here. But the bigness of the list probably makes it a good kick-off for a semi-regular but much shorter feature.

Instant Ramen

So I am more than likely the only family member who still eats instant ramen but I am posting this anyway. For me, Maruchan ramen is a major comfort food. With Scott having just moved to Texas and also having just taken on a lot more debt since I bought a car, I have definitely been on a ramen kick. The soup form is my fave-y but with no additives I think it is really boring. This is what I have been throwing in recently (as with seemingly everything I cook, the ingredients change dramatically based on what I have on hand)

To one package Maruchan Beef Flavor or Oriental Flavor Ramen:
-2 or 3 red radishes, sliced
-3 white mushrooms, sliced
-2 green onions, cliced into rounds (whites and tops)
-1 inch piece of fresh ginger grated or sliced finely
-1/2 to 1 tsp garlic powder
-1 tsp sriracha
-1 tsp soy sauce
-1 good grind of pepper

I cook the noodles to an al dente consistency with the seasoning packet in the water so the noodles absorb the flavor. I put all the other ingredients at the bottom of a bowl and pour the cooked noodles and broth over top.

*last night I also put in some cubed ham. It totally worked.

other favorite additives: Furikake, sesame seeds, crushed coriander seed, dried red chilies, mung bean sprouts, red onion, fresh sliced garlic, white vinegar or rice vinegar.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Hot and Sour Soup

This one's a slow cooker recipe. I think our crockpot is five or six quarts, but the recipe would probably fit in a 4-quart cooker.

1/3 cup dried shiitake or cloud ear mushrooms
One 6-oz can bamboo shoots, drained, rinsed, cut into thin strips
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 Tbsp. peeled and minced fresh ginger (dried will work in a pinch, though)
4 cups vegetable stock
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. Thai chile paste (the red stuff)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 oz. firm tofu
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
3 Tbsp. minced scallions
1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil

1. Soak mushrooms in hot water about twenty minutes, then cut into strips and add to slow cooker. Add bamboo shoots, garlic, ginger, stock, vinegar, soy sauce, and chile paste. Season with salt and pepper, cover, cook on low 6 to 8 hours.
2. Just before serving, stir in the peas, scallions, and sesame oil and tofu and let cook about 10 minutes more. Serve hot.

If you make it according to the recipe this is more of a side dish, but if you add a generous scoop of brown rice into your bowl it works as a main dish.

Also, fresh shiitakes work great when you can get them. And if you're using dried you don't really have to soak them first--you can just crumble them right into the pot and they soften up just fine.

You can also use water chestnuts instead of bamboo, or if I double the recipe I like to add one can of water chestnuts (sliced) and one can of bamboo.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Cabbage salad with sesame dressing

We've got a pretty good Asian market near us, so there's not much in the way of Japanese foodstuffs that I really miss, but shredded cabbage is one. You can get shredded cabbage here for cole slaw, but that tends to be fairly short pieces. In Japan, it's common to slice cabbage in long, thread-thin ribbons for a garnish on various meat dishes, or just for use as a salad. I'm working my way up to being able to slice it that thin, but it isn't easy. Akiko says it's the kind of job apprentice chefs in Japan are given when they're new on the job.

Still, I can just about get it, so I can make my favorite variation on the basic green salad. To wit:

1. Shred your cabbage. About a third of a small cabbage will make enough for two medium-sized bowls of salad.

2. Peel a section of daikon and cut off enough to make a cube of about an inch on the long sides and half an inch or so on the short sides. Run this through a mandoline so you have a bunch of thin sheets of daikon.

3. Take about a half cup of frozen corn and thaw it in the microwave.

4. Chop a handful of peanuts in the food processor.

5. Toss the cabbage, corn, and daikon together and put in bowls.

6. Top with sesame dressing (there's a brand called Masa's sesame miso dressing that's widely available in this country).

7. Garnish with the chopped peanuts.

If you can get the cabbage right you'll have all the crunchiness of raw cabbage but it'll be cut so thin that there won't be any bitterness. Very refreshing in the summer.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Gjetost cheese



On the left is brie, on the right is gjetost cheese. I got this on cheese clearance at Smiths because I'd never tried it before. The picture doesn't really do justice to the surprising (alarming) brownness of this cheese. In its native Norway it's apparently called brunost, meaning brown cheese. It's made by boiling down milk products until they turn into what essentially is a block of caramel cheese, and that's pretty much what it tastes like. Sweetest. Cheese. Ever. I don't see it becoming my favoritest cheese ever, but it's pretty darn interesting.

My favorite cheese right now is Kerrygold aged cheddar, by the way. Best sharp cheddar I've ever had. A little expensive to cook with, but great for shredding on top of stuff or just eating on crackers. Yum.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

From my Programming Connections

Recently, my feed reader has received several posts from Joe Pastry, with plenty of great tips for desserts and other fabulous-sounding foods. The odd part is that they come from an acquaintance introduced to me through my work on Parlance; we're only connected in case we ever start active development on a web front-end.

This is on top of Joseph Hall's entries in the Utah Open Source Planet, which dives into cooking on an irregular basis, as well as ruminations on an ideal recipe storage program. This year has also seen a Summer of Pie there, with more description than real recipes for (you guessed it) pies.

Then today, I get a kohlrabi dish via Planet Python, which usually discourages non-pythonic posts. I'm beginning to think there's a deeper connection between geekdom and cooking. Or is it really just baking?

Top Ten Spices Ever

Inspired by Taryn's favorite condiments and the rearrangement of my spice cupboard (had to put chipotle powder in the lineup), here are my top ten spices. I'm only counting dry spices here, arranged (sort of) in order of favoriteness and frequency of use.

1. basil
2. oregano
3. chili powder (the mild stuff)
4. cumin (whole or powdered, depends what I'm doing)
5. red pepper flakes
6. coriander
7. ginger
8. mustard seed
9. rosemary
10. turmeric

Honorable mention goes to:
cayenne pepper and hungarian paprika, nutmeg, allspice, dill, and Luzianne Cajun spice blend.
I'm not counting garam masala even though I use it a lot because I use it in paste form and keep it in the fridge.

Eric would probably add thyme to the list, but I'm actually not a fan. He can write his own favorites list. So there. But really, I'd love to hear everyone's favorites, I love new spices. Yay! Maybe we'll redo pastes and condiments in another post.

Okinawan bitter melon stir-fry (Goya chanpuru)

This is like Okinawa's national dish (or it would be, if it were a nation). We like it, but I'd never made it myself because of rumors that the key ingredient is hard to handle. But I saw some in the farmer's market last Saturday, so I had to try it. And, hey, it came out good.

The key ingredient is goya, or bitter melon. If you can find it at all, you may find two varieties, a larger smoother version called Chinese bitter melon and a smaller bumpier version called Indian bitter melon. (Oh, that makes me realize, most of you may be familiar with this vegetable after all!) It's the Indian version, I think, that's standard for this dish. At least, that's what I used, and it tasted right.

So here's what you need:
1 bitter melon
10 or so baby carrots (optional)
1 block firm tofu
2 eggs
salt
soy sauce
half can Spam (optional)
vegetable oil

1. Cut the ends off the bitter melon, then slice it lengthwise. With a spoon scrape out the seeds. Then slice the melon into thin cross-sections. Put in a bowl and sprinkle some salt over it. Let it sit until the melon turns rubbery. Then rinse the melon in water and pat or squeeze dry with paper towels. The object here is to take some of the bitterness out. It'll still be bitter no matter what you do, but this helps some.

2. Cut the carrots into quarters lengthwise. Carrots are not a standard ingredient in Okinawa, but I saw one recipe that listed them, tried it, and they were awesome. The sweetness of the carrots is a great contrast to the bitterness of the melon.

3. Cut the Spam into small slices. Spam is optional: most recipes you'll find in cookbooks and on-line won't even list it as an ingredient, but believe me, Spam is a key ingredient in the classic everyday Okinawan version of this. Of course if you're vegetarian it can be left out: there're plenty of other proteins in this dish.

4. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat.

5. Cut the tofu into small cubes.

6. Heat a little vegetable oil in a wok and stir fry. Start with the carrots; when they're starting to soften up, add the Spam, then the bitter melon. Then add the tofu. Stir fry everything until the veggies are done, the Spam is browned, and the tofu is crumbled. Splash some soy sauce over it.

7. Add the egg and keep stir frying until the egg is cooked.

8. Serve with rice.

Bitter melon is an acquired taste, but once you acquire it, the bitterness works really well in the summer.

Stewed Tomatoes

I really like tomatoes in pretty much any form and although stewed tomatoes are good out of a can, I like to make my own for a little variety. They're really easy actually and you can adjust the flavor to suit you and what you're in the mood for. This is what I did the other night:

7 over-ripe tomatoes, quartered, leave the skins on (normally you're supposed to remove them for stewing and saucing)
2 fresh chilies (i used cayennes from my yard but anything will really do, even dried stuff)
1/2 a head of garlic, peeled and root ends cut off
1 tbs. capers (don't rinse them)
2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 springs fresh oregano (use dried, whatevs. About 1 tbs. dried)
Salt to taste
pinch of sugar

Heat your oil over low heat in a large non-stick pan. Throw your garlic cloves in and let them get a little brown on the outside (just a little). Add your tomatoes and let them start cooking. Stir well and mix them in with the oil and garlic. After about ten minutes, start mushing up your tomatoes and your garlic with the back of a spoon (it'll be pretty easy). They don't need to be uniformly mashed or anything, just break up all your chunks and let the juices and flavors come out. Throw in your chilies, oregano, sugar, salt, and capers and let everything simmer for about ten minutes. The end result should be soupy still with nicely softened chunks of tomatoes and garlic. Serve over pasta. This improves with age so enjoy it the next day too. Warning: it'll get spicier the next day if you use fresh chilies.

indonesian pilaf

OK. I made this last night - the recipe came from a kashi advertisement. i halved the amount of rice, but then we didn't have leftovers...i think the actual amount would work for dinner, then lunch the next day for two.

ingredients:
2 packets kashi 7 whole grain pilaf (8 cups of any cooked whole grain would work)
1 c whole peanuts
4 tsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
1 med red onion, diced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
3/4 c raisins
1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 c red cabbage, diced
1 pinch salt
1/4 c. water
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar (i ran out and used cider vinegar - it was ok)
2 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp crushed red chili flakes
2 tsp evaporated cane juice (i used some brown sugar)

directions:
cook pilaf according to package directions. saute garlic and onion in 2 tsp sesame oil until limp. add cumin and coriander, stir. ad carrots, raisins, cabbage, salt, and water- stir well. cover with lid, reduce heat to low, simmer for 3ish minutes, then remove from heat. in a large mixing bowl, combine everything (including uncooked pepper and peanuts). In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients, whisk together, and add to the pilaf mixture. stir well and enjoy.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

CousCous

We had some delicious couscous last night:

1 1/4 c. water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pepper

bring water and spices to a boil, add 1 c quick-cooking couscous, remove from heat and cover for 5 min (according to package directions)

when couscous is done, stir in one can of chick peas and some lemon zest.

i added some of my favorite lemon pepper (jane's krazy mixed-up seasoning, http://www.janeskrazy.com/) to taste.