Bibimbap

I have been wanting to make bibimbap for awhile.  Back in college, the fellowship I was a part of often had dinner/movie nights with Asian themes.  So we'd serve potstickers & curry and watch a Chinese movie or have bibimbap and watch My Sassy Girl.  The staff worker that led our fellowship was Korean, so bibimbap was a natural go-to recipe for him. 

Finally tried my hand at it this past weekend with the help of the Korean internet lady of course (http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/bibimbap).  It's actually a pretty healthy dish with lots of veggies: bean sprouts, spinach, carrots, cucumber (I used this instead of zucchini), mushrooms, and whatever else you think would be good.  The prep work does take a little while, but you sure do get a lot of meals from it. 

Here are some pictures before the fried egg and red pepper paste went on top. :)

Grilled Fish

After watching the documentary Food, Inc. I thought about becoming a pescetarian.  Edwin laughs at this term because he thinks it's basically a pseudo-vegetarian trying to take the easy way out.  I'm neutral.  I say, if you want to be a pork-atarian and only eat pork, go for it! 

So anyway I've been trying to incorporate more fish into our diet because it's much healthier than other meats and there are probably less cruel things you can do to seafood (although I'm sure there are plenty of inhumane ways to treat fish as well).

I have been on a Steamy Kitchen cookbook kick.  I found a fish recipe in there: Grilled Fish with Kabayaki Sauce.  The Kabayaki sauce is made of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin.  I didn't have mirin so used sherry instead.  I got some catfish fillets and browned those, then brushed the warmed sauce over both sides of the fish.  It's served over rice and doused with some shredded, toasted seaweed.  If you like sweet dishes, this is a winner!

Ramen Ramen Ramen

If you remember why this blog was originally started, you will know that ramen is a dish that is close to our hearts.  It was the scrumptious meal (well, technically saimin I supposed) we shared on our honeymoon multiple times.  We still talk about it and try to relive it by eating ramen in every city that offers a decent bowl.  

During our January trip to NYC, we had ramen at Momofuku.  It really wasn't all it was hyped up to be.  Don't get me wrong, the food there was pretty tasty (esp the porkbelly buns!), but the ramen itself didn't wow me so much.  I think I remember the noodles being too chewy.  I had Santa Ramen in San Mateo, CA last May.  Now that was a memorable experience.  The only downfall to that was the delicious slow roasted pork you order on the side came in the bowl and really just made the soup oilier and saltier as you ate.  I felt a lot of pressure to eat fast.  Then last July after our road trip from LA to San Francisco, I was eager to introduce Santa Ramen to Edwin.  Unfortunately they were closed on the only day we were there.  Boo!  But alas we found another ramen shop at the suggestion of a good friend.  We already had plans to meet friends for lunch at the Ferry Building, but that did not stop us.  Oh no.  After lunch, we quickly walked several blocks to Katana-Ya where Edwin satsfied his ramen craving at last.  For some reason I got a picture of him happily awaiting his ramen, but I forgot to take one when it actually came.  I guess he slurped it down too fast.

  





 This was the ramen at Momofuku.  Excuse the silly face.

Santa Ramen!

 

  



 
Katana-Ya










Not sure how this post turned into our ramen experiences.  I really did make ramen and want to share pictures.  So the ramen I tried this time was Miso Ramen from the Steamy Kitchen cookbook.  I love the flavor of miso so was eager to try putting that in the soup base.  I topped it with bamboo shoots, corn, napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, chicken and hard-boiled eggs.  Basically everything that was in our fridge.  Obviously not as good as the restaurants, but it's a work in progress.  We've entertained thoughts of opening some sort of Food Truck (it's the new craze everywhere!) and have considered selling ramen.  Well either that or hot dogs :)  If you have any suggestions, throw them my way!

 
I love thick noodles, so I used udon in mine.

Edwin opted for the thinner wonton noodles.  He is Cantonese.

Peanut Sesame Noodles

After a summer of cooking lots of American food, I decided I wanted to make more Asian dishes.  So I looked up a recipe to make peanut sesame noodles.  My friend Corinna would often make this in college, and bring around a humongous pot to feed everyone on our dorm floor.  It’s a pretty cost-efficient dish if you have to feed a lot of mouths I guess!

Surprisingly, a recipe on yahoo caught my eye: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/recipe-for-a-late-summer-potluck-sesame-noodles-2363652/
I got all the ingredients together and was planning to make it one Saturday afternoon.  I was headed out the door that morning and told Edwin my plans to make the noodles later in the day.  He said he wanted to try his hand at it, and insisted on making it while I was gone.  No complaints here!

I think he tweaked the recipe a bit (maybe didn’t add quite so much peanut butter to allow the sesame flavor to come out?).  The results: I think it was better than I could have done!   The perfect cool and refreshing meal to round out a summer day.

Za Jiang Mein

Mmm, Za Jiang Mein has always been a favorite food of mine.  The easiest way to describe it is Chinese Spaghetti!  You use a few simple ingredients like sweet bean paste with ground pork and the dish is sweet, salty, and scrumptious.  Here is the fabulous recipe I used: http://www.foodmayhem.com/2009/11/za-jiang-mein.html.  The site does a great job explaining what the dish is all about and breaks it down with step-by-step pictures!  What else could you ask for?

So I made this dish for a couple friends, Wender and Cherry, and I found out two things that night: Cherry is a noodle-monster and Wender is better with a fork than a pair of chopsticks.  That wasn't a dig Wender!  Just a fun fact.

Here are some pictures from the night:

My bowl with crunchy cucumbers and blanched bean sprouts.

Cherry's very full bowl of noodles (bowl 1 of 2).  She said the noodles fluffed everything up and made it seem like a lot of food.

   

Light summer dessert: lychee and yellow jelly

Cioppino Soup

I love the Cioppino Soup from Whole Foods.  I feel like a horse with blinders on when I enter that store because I make my way directly to the seafood section and help myself to a cup of that delicious soup.  I decided to try my hand it at because I was tired of paying $3.99 a cup every time I went.  Found a recipe from Giada (of course): http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/cioppino-recipe/index.html, and it was a lot of fun to make!  It was my first time using fennel as well as clams and some varieties of the fish.  Paired with some baked garlic baguette slices, it was a slurp-down meal!  

Homemade Pizza Dough

Last weekend I made my own pizza dough for the first time ever.  It was fun cause you get to punch the dough a few times in the process of waiting for it to rise fully.  Since I spent so much time on the dough, all the other ingredients were store-bought. :)  I rolled it out really flat because I was going to grill the dough and just prefer a thinner crust. After grilling 2 crusts, and baking 2 crusts to do a side-by-side comparison, it turned out that all of the pizza crust wound up kind of looking like Indian naan bread.  It would puff up real big with those air bubbles but then after it settled, the crust was cracker-thin, just how I like it.  

I made 4 types.  We had friends over too!  We didn't eat all this ourselves.

 
*Oblong Margarita Pizza with sliced tomatoes (this one came out a little soggier than the next one without tomatoes)










*Traditional Margarita pizza (I love fresh mozzarella!)

 



*Grilled Shrimp and Pesto Pizza












*Pesto Pizza with Artichokes & Red Onions (Half Chicken/Half Shrimp)







This Sunday marks our 1-year anniversary!  I am happy to say that it's been a fun ride cooking my way through the year and trying out new things and just having the time to actually do it!  Edwin told me the other day that it doesn't make sense for him to cook anymore because #1: he gets home so late and #2: I've gotten so good at cooking.  Call me a sucker, but I'll take that compliment and continue with the cooking...at least for another year.  :)  Happy cooking to all of you.
 

Summer Steak Salad

A couple weeks ago someone suggested making a steak salad for a summer dish (thanks, Kathleen!).  Usually I think "heavy" when I think steak, but the ingredients in a steak salad can definitely be refreshing and cool enough for the summer.  Since we had rib-eye in the freezer, I went ahead and used that with this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/steak-salad-recipe/index.html.  I did a few omissions and substitutions with Giada's recipe- cut out the endive and used goat for gorgonzola cheese.  I also used some romaine lettuce to supplement the arugula.  

Oh a really gross side story- I bought TRIPLE-WASHED arugula and learned my lesson that even triple-washed greens need to be inspected.  As I was tossing the arugula with the romaine, guess what I found??  A cricket...that was still alive!  YUCK.  Being the resourceful and frugal cook that I am, I triple-washed all the leaves again and hoped for the best. 

Anyway, the finished product was probably a little bit heavier than if you had used flank steak and not included cheese, but it was one way I could get away with making a "salad" the main course.  :) 

That's Tim and Christine in the back of the picture- Hi, Lee's!  Thankfully after they heard the story about the cricket in the bag of greens, they didn't run. 
 
I also found an appetizer recipe in Everyday Food called Cucumber-Feta Toasts.  They are exactly what they sound like: cucumbers atop feta cheese (mixed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper) on top of a toasted baguette.  The first couple times I made it, I thought they were awesome.  But recently after making them so much, I am realizing that I am getting burnt out on feta cheese!  That's a first.  Happy weekend!

 

Summer Peaches

A couple weekends ago, I went peach-picking in Fredericksburg with some friends.  Had a good time hanging out with everyone, and we came back with a LOT of peaches!  So I decided to try my hand at making a peach pie.  I started volunteering with the TX Pie Kitchen a couple months ago (http://www.texaspiekitchen.com/Texas_Pie_Kitchen/Home.html), and I've learned a few tips and tricks along the way.  Despite all the recent experience with pie-making, I felt nervous doing it on my own...good thing Wender was there, so we were able to do it together! 

I rolled out the dough while she peeled and sliced up the peaches.  Then we did the mixing and formed the lattice topping (I know, fancy right?) together.  We used a recipe from America's Test Kitchen cookbook, and it turned out great!  The pie wasn't overwhelmingly sweet, and the crust was nice and buttery- I won't mention how many sticks of butter we used, but I'm sure you can guess!  

Oh and here's a plug for the TX Pie Kitchen- please let me know if you'd ever like to purchase a pie to support this non-profit, and I can put in an order for you and will be sure I have a hand in making it.  :)  

Thanks, Wender for all your help and for taking the great photos!

Ahi Poke Salad & Sides

I discovered how tasty poke can be when we visited Hawaii last year.  It's light, refreshing, and seems like the perfect island food.  I got a chunk of tuna at HEB for a very reasonable price, and found a simple recipe.  Here it is: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/ahi-poke-basic/Detail.aspx.  I followed the reviewers' suggestions to omit the macademia nuts. 

That night we also had shrimp, orzo with pesto, and spinach.  I seasoned the shrimp with Misty's All Natural Seasoning (http://hamptons.guestofaguest.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/mistys.jpg), courtesy of Edwin's mom.  The bottle in that photo is the All-Purpose, but I'm not sure if there's much of a difference.  This is like the secret spice of all time.  There's no MSG, and whatever you throw it on, tastes sooo good.  No joke.  I'm usually a recipe-follower and measure out those little 1/4 teaspoons of herbs, but with Misty's I just throw it on anything.  It has yet to fail me!

 















We have been busy with traveling and moving this past month, so I don't have anything I have cooked worth posting.  But now that we are in a nice, big kitchen, I'm excited to cook again.  Any recommendation for a tasty but healthy meal for these hot, summer nights? :)

Do It Yourself Sushi Night

We turned a date night into let's make and eat lots of sushi.  It was fun, and I finally got to try out my hand in making Spam Musubi, which is so good, so unhealthy and so simple!  Thanks, Kyle for the Musubi press!!  Edwin will not like the 2nd picture, but I think it's great.  And we used smoked salmon on the roll- much cheaper and almost as tasty as the raw stuff :)

Lamp Chops and Lasagna

These lamp chops were made in a cooler!  Seriously.  You know the fancy sous-vide machines they are always using on Iron Chef to make things cook faster?  Well the cooler is the poor man's sous-vide, and let me tell you, it rocks.  The chops rested in a large freezer bag with fresh herbs and soaked in a warm water bath for about an hour and a half.  Then they were seared on both sides for a few minutes.  Pioneer Woman's hearty and delicious lasagna took longer to make than the chops! 

Thanks, Ed for the tips on the sous-vide and searing the meat! 

Korean Food

I cannot claim credit for these dishes although I wish I could!  Edwin made the Japchae with help from the Korean video lady, and I bought the Galbi from the Korean store.  Just grill it up!  Our friends also came over with seafood pancakes (sadly did not get a picture), so it was the perfect Korean meal.  So thankful for good food, family and friends.

March Photo Dump

It's been awhile since the last update, so I thought I'd just post pictures of the things I've made in the past few months!

Avocado Salad & Chicken Enchiladas

Shrimp Po'boys

Baked Chicken, Orzo with Spinach, and Baked Goat Cheese Salad (the goat cheese rounds were so easy to make and so tasty!)

Sweet Baby Back Ribs & Green Bean Casserole

Comfort Food & Good Friends

Our good friends, Janel and Edwin (another Edwin!), had us over for dinner the other night.  They made us a delicious meal of comfort food, so this entry is dedicated to them and covers  the yummies they shared with us!

Let me back up a little bit...the dinner was actually the wager we won from a game of Nertz played a few weeks back.  Edwin (not mine) had been honing his Nertz-playing skills and challenged us to a game.  We willingly agreed (always up for a friendly...and competitive game).  Plus a girl's gotta eat, and either way, a dinner would be the outcome.  So after a VERY close and intense game, the final verdict favored us...woo-hoo!  But our competition kept us on our toes...you could tell Edwin had been practicing, and it helped that his partner, Janel, played at the speed of light and steadily barked out orders (while answering a phone call mid-game)! :)

Our victory dinner included pork chops with mushroom sauce, macaroni & cheese, and green beans.  I know right?!  My mouth is watering too.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures until after we ate.  Not usually a good representation of the food.  I didn't get a shot of the pork chops because they quickly disappeared, but I got what I could of the sides.  Janel was kind enough to send me the recipes they used that night.

Porkchops:

Wanna know the secret???  Cream of mushroom soup!  The meat was perfectly done and tender, and the sauce really added to the flavor.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Golden-Pork-Chops/Detail.aspx

Mac & Cheese:

She said they used a combination of a couple different recipes due to their lack of ingredients.  What a true chef!  All I know is it came hot and fresh from the oven, topped with bread crumbs and crumbled bacon.  Delicious!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chucks-Favorite-Mac-and-Cheese/Detail.aspx

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/creamy-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html

Green Beans:

No recipe for this one.  Just good ol' sauteed green beans with garlic and spices?

Thanks guys for the great meal, and any time you want to play Nertz again, we're game!

Steak Sandwiches

We've had the good fortune of being friends with Wender who is in the meat distributing industry.  Not only is she kind and thoughtful, but she offers great cuts of meat for a good price!  We had a couple of her steaks in the freezer, so I thought I should use them up.  I like steak but don't particularly like eating it in a big chunk (preferring it to be cut up in a stir-fry or paired with other things).  So I decided we would have steak sandwiches! 

It also just so happened that a friend of mine sent me a link to an awesome food website with phenomenal pictures and recipes : http://www.tastespotting.com/  Thanks Cherry!
From there I grabbed my steak sandwich recipe (http://www.lifesambrosia.com/2009/02/rib-eye-steak-sandwiches-recipe.html) and got to work.


Simple, simple, simple: some ciabatta bread, prepared caper cream sauce, arugula leaves, and grilled rib-eye.  

Edwin liked the steaks so much, he ate a sandwich and another steak on the side. :)  In his defense, the steak in his sandwich was thin.

I also made a salad on the side, always wanting to make one of those cabbage or lettuce salads with bits of ramen noodles thrown in.  It reminds me of a salad at a potluck in a teacher's lounge.  It was very tasty and very unhealthy!  I feel like I've been cooking a lot more with butter lately...maybe we oughta cut back on that...Anyway here's the recipe if you want to try it: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Napa-Cabbage-Salad/Detail.aspx.

Antipasto Salad & Seafood Pasta

We had some good friends over the other night, and I decided to try out a couple new dishes.  Edwin always gets nervous when I try out new dishes on other people.  He says, "What if it doesn't turn out right?  It's better to try it out on ourselves first."  I remember we actually had a fight once because I wanted to make a brisket for Easter one year for our friends.  This was a PRE-COOKED brisket from HEB, and all you had to do was pop it into the oven!  My stubbornness won over, and luckily so did the brisket.  Recently he hasn't had many objections to my experimental cooking on others; maybe because he's realizing that he can't bite the hand that feeds him...and be fed!

The menu for the night: Antipasto Salad, Seafood Pasta, and Garlic Bread. 

Antipasto Salad: If you live in Austin and have ever been to Mandola's, you probably know about their Antipasto Salad.  It is phenomenal.  My husband, the non-salad eater, loves this salad (yes, it is dripping in dressing).  I tried to replicate this dish that night, even finding the perfect Garlic-Parmesan dressing.  The salad is big and hearty, so get ready for this laundry list of ingredients: bag of greens, salami, provolone & mozzarella cheese, kidney & cannellini beans, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm (these are so neat!), roasted red peppers, and cherry tomatoes.  I mixed a little shredded parmesan in with the dressing, and I have to say it was pretty close to the original!  Mandola's includes olives, fennel, and pickled red onions in theirs, but I opted out of these ingredients.

Seafood Pasta: My sister sent me this recipe a couple weeks ago, and coincidentally it was from Jaden Hair from Steamy Kitchen!  She had posted a recipe on http://thepioneerwoman.com (who is awesome!), and right away I knew I had to make it.  I used both scallops and shrimp, and I learned quite a lesson in how to sear a scallop.  She has some great step-by-step photos and tips that walk you through the recipe, but unfortunately my stove had a mind of its own.  After the smoke detectors went off, it turned out that all the seafood came out okay.  Whew!  You can check out the recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/2010/01/scallops-n-pasta/  Hers is much prettier than mine. :) 

Garlic Bread: I didn't take a picture of the bread, but here's the recipe I used, courtesy of Mr. Bobby Flay: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/garlic-bread-recipe/index.html.  A lesson I learned from this is don't skimp on the butter!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend full of holidays to celebrate.  I was lucky enough to have another reason to celebrate~ Edwin and I celebrated 6-months, that's right 6 whole months, of marriage!  Did I cook him dinner?  Did he take me out?  Neither!...we had pizza and wings from Papa John's! 

Chinese Hot Dogs

One of my dreams is to open a Chinese bakery in Austin.  We all know we need one!  Some common responses after telling people about my vision:

-Ooo, you should do it!  And you should offer smoothies! (Cherry)

-I'll be the first in line everyday and be your most loyal customer. (Pastor Gaylord)

-Wanna use our kitchen as a testing grounds?  (my sweet and practical husband)

I realized I didn't really know how to make any Chinese bakery items- savory or sweet.  So I thought I'd start with one of my favorites- The Chinese Hot Dog (some know it as Chinese Sausage Buns).

Got a great recipe online, step-by-step photographs included.  The trickiest part of it all was converting the grams to teaspooons/cups!  Oh and getting the right consistency for the dough.  My FIRST time hand-kneading dough with that instant yeast.  I was on the phone with my sister a lot figuring out what I was doing wrong.

Here's the recipe if you want to check it out: http://dailydelicious.blogspot.com/2008/06/sausage-cheese-rolls-with-hand-knead.html

A few variations from the recipe (I'm such a dare-devil now):
-Used turkey dogs instead of regular hot dogs (I'm turning into my mom who is forever making recipes healthier)

-Didn't use cheese

-Sprinkled sesame seeds on top

-Tried a few different ways of wrapping the bread

The final product was pretty but lacked a bit in flavor.  It was delicious with some mustard and ketchup...just like a real American hot dog!  Happy Chinese New Year!

Citrus Grilled Shrimp Salad

You've probably noticed by now that my cooking is essentially copying other people's recipes.  Sometimes I'm adventurous enough to throw things together on my own, but I'm pretty much a stickler to what's on print.  It used to be so bad that if the recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of an obscure spice, I would search frantically for it until I procured that particular ingredient, even if it meant going to several grocery stores.  That's probably why I have a dozen spices in my cabinet that all have 1/4 teaspoon missing from them, never to be touched again!  Cream of Tartar anyone?  So I have been learning that cooking is all about experimenting, and that it's okay to use substitutes when you don't have a specific ingredient OR you can just omit that ingredient all together...well as long as it isn't salt when you're making cookies or something- that's pretty essential!   

I decided to make a salad one night; Edwin is not a huge fan of salads unless they are covered in Ranch dressing or laced with fried chicken strips, so I decided to search for a healthy but tasty salad online.  I came across one of Robin Miller's recipes.  Here is the video for you visual learners (first link) as well as the recipe version:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/citrus-grilled-shrimp-salad/8545.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/robin-miller/citrus-grilled-shrimp-over-greens-recipe/index.html

The salad was easy to prepare, and I even did a little ingredient substitution and additions!  The salad called for chives, but alas I did not have any chives.  Strangely enough I did have leeks in my fridge, so I used those instead.  My resource for figuring out what to substitute came from : http://rawtestkitchen.blogspot.com/2007/10/substitutions.html.  I'm sure there are a ton out there, but that's what popped up when I performed my search.  I also added some grapefruit and cucumbers.  Aren't you real chefs out there proud of the risks I took? :)  

We brought the salad over to share with our friends Tim & Christine, but boy did I get one-upped.  Tim had made Chinese Roast Pork (siu gue yuk), and Christine made Turnip Cake (loh bak go).  I knew my salad was tasty enough, but it was the roast pork and turnip cake that Edwin kept reaching for.  Okay, I guess I did as well!  Too bad we didn't get pictures of those dishes.