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Avoiding Challenges

Posted on September 19, 2011 by D.

… My self proclaimed month of baking did not happen. At all. Well, I made 1 item out of the proposed 4, but documentation is non-existent. Corn bread. Not the sweet kind, just the regular kind that needs to be topped off with a wonderful gravy in order to be palatable. As you can see, I like the sweet type of cornbread, not the bare bones type. But still, I made it and it was a success! Just not something that I would normally pick out for myself. I actually had it as part of dinner, with sauteed greens and some form of protein that I can’t recall just yet. The whole time, I was wondering if I should bother to make a light gravy, but sloth got the better of me and I decided not to :)

Proclamations of challenges is something I will have to be better prepared for next time. Having a timeline and list of items is not enough, for me I would need to have all the ingredients on hand in a safe place, not to mention having a set budget for my challenge!

My husband would prefer a home-baked birthday cake after a few unhappy bakery bought cake incidents this past year. He’s a chocoholic, so the overly ambitious person in me wants to bake him something wonderful, something that goes like this:

A tall chocolate mousse layered between chocolate cake, covered with chocolate buttercream, topped off with chocolate ganache, with some chocolate shavings as a decorative element on top.

Does that sound too heavy?

Most likely, knowing me what I will be able to make would be a smaller version of that. Instead of a high multi-layered cake, probably something shorter, with just one thick later of mousse sandwiched between chocolate cake slabs. Chocolate buttercream frosting might be replaced with store bought chocolate frosting, and the ganache on top probably wont even happen.

We’ll see how it goes. Currently, I am in research mode, looking online for the best cake, best buttercream, and best ganache recipes. I already have a stand by chocolate mousse recipe :)

I’ll let you know how my findings go, and I realize that I need to practice the different elements a few times before I make the complete cake!

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No Yeast & No Rolling Pin Baking

Posted on August 2, 2011 by D.

Ok, after a few days of flipping through books, going through backlogs of other people’s cooking blogs, and searching on Google, I have decided what to do for the month of August!

August 2011 will be the month of “No Yeast & No Rolling Pin Baking” in which I will bake four different items that I have never attempted before. The four recipes will have the following in common:

  • No yeast in the batter
  • Does not need to be rolled out
  • Must be baked in the oven

How did I set my limits? Well, my rolling pin no longer rolls because one month ago, I forgot to take it out of the broiler while I was baking potatoes so it burned and I haven’t been gotten around to buying a new one. I am purposely staying away from yeast based baking because it’s too intimidating for me right now, what with the time commitment and prepping the oven properly in order to get the right type of crust on my bread. The oven part? Well… My friend suggested that I do tortillas, or bannocks, or flat breads, but the only recipes I have on hand are made stove top and I have this weird mental thing where bread = oven. So there you have it, my rules for this month are based on fear, preconceived notions, and lack of equipment :)

On the list for this month are the following items:

  • Soda bread
  • Corn bread
  • Scones
  • Gougeres

I am really looking forward to the scones and the soda bread! My mother used to buy Irish soda bread from the bakery and I enjoyed slathering them with butter and eating slices at a time. Good stuff!

Scones, I discovered in college. There is a small hole-in-the-wall bakery/cafe near my college where I imbibed in wonderfully strong coffee, the best soy chai latte on the East Coast, and scones. Wonderful scones. I love scones. Blueberry is my favorite I think, but I’m not picky.

I’m a bit worried about the cornbread… It’s such a hit or miss thing, some places get it right, serving up cornbread that makes you forget about the rest of the meal, whereas other places serve up cornbread that just…is. I wonder how my version will turn out?

Gougeres, I’ve never tried these, but it has cheese in it and it’s a baked item. I’m fairly sure that I will enjoy it. Dairy is my friend, lactose intolerance be damned.

I have no idea what order I will make everything in, but I am going to aim for one a week. Pictures and reviews and information on the recipe that I used will be forthcoming!

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Projects

Posted on July 26, 2011 by D.

I realize I am a very sporadic blogger if I don’t have anything in specific to blog about. I’m much too task oriented to just blog on the fly about whatever I happened to eat for dinner last night, which was fun in the beginning but it’s not really rooted in anything, so I think I will do something to challenge myself to write about food.

I am going to participate in some sort of cooking related challenge, either well-known on the blog-o-sphere or something I do on my own.

I’m hoping that this will ensure a good build up of habits I would like to reinforce in my life, a few of them being:

  • cooking real meals with creativity and thought behind them
  • blogging consistently (about food)
  • improving in a culinary area in which I am lacking

I would like to start this sometime in August so that I can get going while I’m eager instead of waiting until September and having that drive fizzle into nothing. Does anyone out there know of some sort of weekly cooking challenge I can partake in??? If not, I already have a few ideas going in my head for what topics to cover. Here are some of my ideas:

  • Go through Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, but this necessitates that I need to buy a copy.
  • Fancy desserts that I haven’t made before (flan, tiramisu, etc)
  • New Wednesday Chicken Meal- every Wednesday I would make a chicken based entree that uses a recipe that is not in my standard repetoire
  • Monthly variation – once a week, I would make a variation of a staple recipe, i.e. lasagna variations
  • A bread a week for twelve weeks, same recipe until I get it right

Right now, the bread a week and the fancy desserts options seem good. I need to think about this and look online to see if there is something I can participate in. I need the outside pressure to make sure I stick o my commitment!

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Longing…Pining…Whatever You Want to Call It

Posted on July 1, 2011 by D.

Homemade vanilla extract, you are now within my grasp! In two months time, you will be at my disposable, ready to be used and abused at my culinary whim! BWAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Evil maniac mode: OFF.

Hello :)

Earlier this week, I used my painstakingly accrued Amazon gift card money to order myself some vanilla beans from Beanilla, and today it arrived! I rushed home from work, opened up my package, and then ran back outside to the nearest liquor store (I don’t run, but I’m painting a picture with words here, bear with me). If one did not know me, one might think that I am some sort of raging alcoholic who needs to stock the home bar in order to start the weekend, but no. I was on a mission. Target: vodka. On the menu tonight: Vanilla Extract!

A little less than $10 for a 750ml bottle of vodka, is this a good deal? I have no idea, my alcoholic preferences are more for wine so I can’t say whether I got a good deal or not.

Back home, I googled “vanilla extract recipe” and ended up reading about five or six recipes, along with twenty to thirty comments ranging from suggestions, questions and the inevitable “wow, I never knew it could be so easy!” and I have finally settled on my strategy.

I have settled on the ratio of 3 whole vanilla beans per 8oz. of vodka. Apparently, this ratio is very flexible, and as time goes along I will probably deviate from this ratio based on how impatient I am, or how many vanilla beans I feel like buying.

I put up my mix in a pint sized ball canning jar, and it looks rather pretty. I was debating between the ball canning jar and a glass bottle but I went for the canning jar in the end because I thought it would be easier later on to scoop out vanilla extract from the ball jar as opposed to holding a measuring spoon in one hand and a glass bottle in the other. I sound horribly lazy don’t I?

I don’t know if I should call this a recipe, but it is a food of sorts, so it counts, right?

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Ingredients

  • Whole vanilla beans
  • 8oz vodka per 3 vanilla beans

Instructions

Split the vanilla beans down the long way, leaving the last 1″ or so uncut. Place the vanilla beans into a glass container of your choice. Pour in vodka, making sure to cover the vanilla beans. Feel free to add in a bit more vodka or to push down the vanilla beans, submerging them in the vodka. Close up your glass container, give it a shake, and store it in a cool, dry, and dark place (I put mine in the pantry), covering with a paper or plastic bag if necessary to keep the light out. Shake the container once a week or so, otherwise only the bottom half of your vodka will take on the vanilla essence. Wait 2 months or so, and it’s ready to go!

Let’s see… I started mine today and it should be ready in September, just in time for some fall baking!

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Too Big to Be A Ramekin

Posted on June 23, 2011 by D.

While googling other uses for ramekins to justify my desiring a set, I came across this:

The Military Doesn’t Speak “Ramekin”

My favorite part would be:

Dustin… got a casserole dish from the cabinet and said, “I’m just going to take this large ramekin here and fill it with some leftovers to be put in the fridge.” Ford, 9, said, “That’s too big to be a ramekin, Dad. Ramekins are small bowls.”

Ah, from the mouths of babes indeed.

And the accompanying visual:

Casserole Dish

Casserole Dish, holds around 3 Quarts, measures 13.25" x 9" x 2" Deep

Ramekin, holds 4.5 oz

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Can Someone Buy Me Ramekins?

Posted on June 23, 2011 by D.

I have a fairly long list of kitchen equipment that I want but can’t have right now and I’ve made do wonderfully with what I have, and wouldn’t trade in any of my pots and pans, utensils, motorized equipment nor baking goods for anything else. We’ve come a long way together, and we’ve come to a great terms of use that both I and my equipment are comfortable with. However, as much as my current stock satisfies me and helps me to create gastronomically awesome things, one thing that remains high on my wanted list has always been illusive to me…

I could never financially justify buying this item in particular because I know that it’s not a “real” necessity, and I can make do without them and have done so for a few years. And I know they are a bit superfluous hence I have not forked over money to buy a 6 pack of them from some store…

Le Creuset Kiwi Green Ramekin

Le Creuset Kiwi Green Ramekin, isn't this a wonderful color???

Ramekins. I want them. At a good price. And I will use them. I know I will! Here’s a list of things I would make if I had ramekins:

  • Crème brûlée (I would pay money to buy the blowtorch if I had the ramekins!)
  • Flan
  • Molten Lava Cake
  • French Onion Soup
  • Souffle
  • Individual pies and cobblers
  • Individual cakes
  • Appetizer sized macaroni and cheese
  • Mini potpies
  • Individual servings of kugel
  • Individual portions of cheesy baked dips!!!

 

Classic White Ramekin set

Classic White Ramekin set, can't go wrong with a classic, right? Simple, elegant, gets the job done.

And that’s all the actual cooking things I can think of, but I will have other uses for them as well, such as:

  • Serving ice cream
  • Storing homemade sauces and dips (husband and I make great dipping sauces for foods)
  • Serving up meal accessories, like lime wedges, or extra sauce/broth
  • Serving up grated cheese on taco nights
Wavy Ramekins with Handles

Wavy Ramekins with Handles. I think the handles would be very useful for moving these guys from oven to table. I imagine it would be difficult to hold a small ramekin using an oven mitt.

And… I am just making excuses but I really will use them!

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All Purpose Stuffing

Posted on June 22, 2011 by D.

I’ve been m.i.a. for a few weeks, but I am back! And I have no real excuse for my absence besides “I wasn’t cooking all that much” because even if I am not cooking a lot, in the far recesses of my brain I do have things to impart unto others. And here the imparting begins.

Remember that stuffed potato recipe from last month? My husband and I made a half dozen of them last night to go along with our New Zealand mussels for dinner, and after eating, I randomly voiced a wonderful idea, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we take the stuffing recipe and put it into the mussel shells and bake the mussels?”

At first, my husband looked at me askance, something like “Why would you want to do that?” but once I followed my query with a fragment, “like baked clams but with mussels!”  everything made sense.

I’m surprised I hadn’t thought of this before actually. Imagine taking the stuffing mixture and combining it with either mussels or clams! I think it’s going to turn out wonderfully, and I plan on trying it myself sometime soon, and I will definitely let you know how it goes.

Oh, by the way, the stuffing was made a bit differently from last time, based on what was in the fridge. I swapped the spinach out for some left over broccoli florets and a few leaves of swiss chard. In the end, the taste wasn’t all that different.

Now that I think about it… It would be wonderful to increase the amount of vegetables in the stuffing, put it into individual ramekins, bake, and eat it just like that… I think I like the stuffing more than the whole dish together!

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Time to Shop

Posted on June 1, 2011 by D.

A few entries ago, I had mentioned that my husband and I only go grocery shopping twice a month, spending around $150 every month, yet we still manage to feed ourselves. A big part of this is due to our exceptionally well stocked pantry and refrigerator. It’s easy to cook at home and make delicious meals if you have most of the ingredients on hand. To someone whose pantry is rather bare, the initial cost of stocking it can be a bit high, however this initial investment will go a long way, with only a small portion of your grocery bill going to restocking base supplies.

Tonight, we are shopping for the following to re-stock our larder:

  • Olive oil – we like to buy those big 3 litre containers and we pour them out into various glass bottles with tops and keep one on our counter for cooking. a 3 litre container lasts us anywhere between three to four months.
  • Brown rice – we usually buy a 10lb bag of white rice, but this time we’re opting out for brown. a 10lb bag of rice lasts us around 3 – 4 months as well, depending on how much pasta we decide to consume.
  • Chocolate syrup – my husband likes his chocolate milk, and I like this stuff over ice cream or to spruce up a desert plate. I think our last bottle lasted us around 6 months? As you can see, we’re not addicted to the stuff
  • Mayonnaise – We buy a 30-32oz jar of mayonnaise every few months, and use it for different salads, on sandwiches, and as a base for dips. I’m especially fond of our wasabi-mayo dip.
  • Soy sauce – A small bottle usually lasts us a few months, unless we decide to marinade a lot of meat in a Korean BBQ marinade.
  • Sesame seed oil – A little bit goes a long way, and we usually go through around two of the 11oz bottles per year.
  • Kosher salt – We purchased a small dinky little container of it two months ago, but it might be more cost effective for us to get the bigger sizes this time around. I keep on going for the kosher salt over the regular salt every time!

Those are only the items that we buy a few times a year. In addition to the aforementioned items we buy our monthly staples such as milk, onions, eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, juice, vegetables, meats, fruits, and whatever else happens to catch our eye and fit into our budget.

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New Levels of Culinary Mastery!!!

Posted on May 31, 2011 by D.

I am awesome. I can make cheese. I can now control the masses through their stomachs. World domination here I come!

Fantasy life aside, as of tonight, I am slightly more awesome than I was this morning because I have made cheese, and now you too can learn the secrets of awesomeness!

Tonight, I made paneer, a soft Indian cheese akin to queso fresco or cottage cheese (which I have never tried). It is shockingly simple, so simple that I feel rather embarrassed knowing that I will share my first paneer making debacle. Yes, debacle, for I, in spite of my new found levels of awesomeness, am capable of screwing up a recipe that only has 2 ingredients and a 10 minute active cooking time.

Here’s the basic gist of making paneer:

Ingredients

  • 1/2 gallon whole milk
  • 2 – 3 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice

Instructions

Bring all the milk to a boil, keep stirring so the bottom doesn’t burn out and stick to the pot. Add in the vinegar/lemon juice one tablespoon at a time and stir a minute or so after each tablespoon. And then magic will happen. Lumps will form in the boiling milk and gather together into bigger lumps, and before you know it, you will have curds and whey. Drain the curds in a strainer lined with cheesecloth or some muslin, rinse with cold water to get rid of the vinegar/lemon taste, or you can just let it cool down by itself. Wrap it up nicely in the cheesecloth and squeeze the excess liquid out of the curds. Place the wrapped cheese under something heavy for a couple of hours to continue the draining process. Unwrap and voila, paneer and you too can claim new heights of awesomeness. Impending world domination and control of the masses is optional.

Tonight, after seeing the curds and whey separate with the addition of a mere tablespoon of vinegar, I got quite giddy. It was like watching a magic show! What amazing kitchen alchemy! The feeling is akin to bringing a dying fire back to life by feeding twigs and blowing on embers. That same sense of “Wow, I didn’t know I could do that!” mingled with the fantastic and mysterious. In fact, the only difference in inner feeling would be that bringing a dying fire back to life makes one feel rather like a fire breathing dragon.

Makes you wonder what I did to screw it up the first time, doesn’t it?

I used the wrong kind of milk. Be warned my friends, ultra-pasteurized milk is not the way to go for making paneer. I used ultra-pasteurized milk and I kept on stirring and stirring and waiting for the curds to form, and form they did, but they never got bigger than a grain of rice. There was none of that wonderful clumping action that I have seen on Youtube videos or in other people’s photographs. However, I was still able to make cheese! I do not know whether this is a testament to my skill or to my hatred of failure, but I made cheese using ultra-pasteurized milk! I just kept on stirring and stirring until all of the liquid evaporated, and then I dumped the soggy mess into a cheesecloth lined strainer, rinsed the hell out of it and squeezed as much water out as I could and then set it under a heavy jar of tomato sauce topped by a glass container full of flour. After a couple of hours or so, I had cheese! It was crumbly, but I had cheese and it tasted like cheese! Success! But a lot more work than anticipated. But success!

My first attempt notwithstanding, making paneer the correct way, using the correct milk is a wonderful venture into cheese making. I am now inspired to go order some rennet and a cheese making kit and try my hand at ricotta and mozzarella! This would be after I take over the world of course.

Here are a few recipes that use paneer that I am thinking of trying:

Most likely I will cut it up, fry it, and toss it with whatever sauteed vegetables I have on hand, or cube it up, fry it, and toss it into a salad.

Dairy farms beware, I know how to make paneer and I’m coming after your dairy cows, goats, and sheep!

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Breakfast of Champions

Posted on May 23, 2011 by D.

In my household, there are two schools of thought on weekday breakfasts. My school of thought. And my husband’s.

As far as I can tell, my husband’s idea of a weekday breakfast, when he is preparing, results in some form of one of the following, all based on availability:

  • Reheated leftovers from the night before
  • A slice of bread or pound cake with a glass of milk
  • Very lumpy and bland oatmeal, if lucky, served with maple syrup or honey
  • A bowl of cereal
  • One egg over easy

My weekday breakfasts look more like this, also based on availability:

  • Breakfast pastry
  • 2 slices of toast with jam or cream cheese
  • 1 egg with either rice or toast or home fries
  • A bowl of cereal
  • Reheated leftovers
  • Oatmeal with a higher liquid content and some sort of mix-in (sunflower seeds, raisins, craisins, chocolate chips)

There’s some overlap, but what I notice is that making breakfast on a weekday morning really sucks. Most mornings I skip breakfast and my first meal is when I take lunch, around 2pm. My husband, even though his breakfasts are rather scant, still thinks that breakfast is a very important meal of the day and I must have something at all costs! So a few months ago, he went out of his way to prepare breakfast for me, and the list above is more or less what I consumed for breakfast.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love breakfast. As a Korean, I didn’t grow up eating breakfast, so the concept of a full American or English breakfast is wonderful! I am such a fan of breakfast that I order breakfast for dinner when I go to diners.

I love breakfast! In fact, I love breakfast so much that I would prefer to not eat breakfast at all if it’s not going to be a good one. And what follows here is what I would think of as a good one.

Eggs and Spinach on Toast

Ingredients

  • 1 or 2 eggs
  • 3 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 cup packed spinach
  • Slice of good crusty bread
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Rub 1 teaspoon of minced garlic on each side of the bread, lightly brush with olive oil and toast. Set toast on plate. Try not to eat it just yet.

Pour olive oil into pan, add all the spinach and the remaining garlic. Saute until the spinach is wilted, adding salt and pepper to taste. Place the cooked spinach on top of the toast, spread it about evenly. Try not to eat right away.

Cook your egg however you like it, I prefer mine to be over easy, and place your egg on top of the spinach on top of the toast.

You can add whatever condiments you want on top of this, or keep it plain. I like mine with some ketchup and hot sauce.

Now that’s a weekday breakfast I wouldn’t mind digging into! Almost makes me want to wake up 20 minutes earlier just to have this in the mornings. Almost, but not quite, sleep still wins over breakfast.

A variation I like to do is to skip the spinach, serve the egg on the toast and top it off with diced tomatoes and chipped parsley with a healthy dose of black pepper on top.

The price breakdown would look something like this:

1 organic egg, $0.34, 1 packed cup of spinach, FREE (I scored some free salad things last Friday night, details forthcoming), 1 slice of whole wheat sourdough bread, FREE (also a lucky score from Friday night), olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, and other condiments, just throw in $1.

Total Spent: $1.34, bwahahahaa, well that’s only because I got lucky with the free finds. However, If you had to pay for all of this, let’s see.. A slice of bread would be around $0.10, and a small amount of spinach from a bundle would be around $0.50 so a total in which most things are not free would be… $1.94 or so. Hmmm… Maybe my estimate of $1 for condiments and what not is too high? Perhaps I should lower it down to $0.50???

Either way, it’s a good weekday breakfast…I’m hungry, is it lunch time yet?

 

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